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SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM

ART HANDBOOKS.

THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS
OF INDIA

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WOODCUTS.

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CHAPMAN AND HALL, Limited, 193, PICCADILLY,
IX)NOON, W.

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SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS.
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

The important colUcHon of examples comprised iu (Me Museum
ortgmally formed by the East India Comply has lateTZL
transferred from the India Office to the charge oj the Urdsoftke
Committee of Council on Education, and will henlefZT tl^

section of the South Kensington Museum ' *

This Volume, forming one of the series of Art Handbook* i r

under the authority of their Lordships, kill 225?LT^
request, and with the concurrence of the C« fT/TT ?

b *UUm a OeM^nm, *,<»«,/«,fc d,7,«ZL"i. ,
May, 1880.

THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS
OF INDIA.

GEORGE C. M. BIRDWOOD, C.S.I., M.D. Edin.,

Art Rtfieroo/or tko Indian Section of tko South Kensington Mm •mm
WITH MAP AND WOODCUTS.

IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I

Published for the Commit lee of Council on Education

CHAPMAN AND HALL, Limited, 193, Piccadilly.

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PREFACE.

Part I, on the Hindu Pantheon, has been compiled
chiefly from the well-known works of Belnos, Cole-
man, Colebrooke, Dowson, Dubois, Fonseca, Garrett,
Gladwin, Goldstiicker, Herklots, Sir W. Jones, Muir,
Max Muller, Talboys Wheeler, Monier Williams, H. H.
Wilson, and J. Wilson, and revised throughout from
the Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology recently
published by Professor Dowson, whose spelling of the
names of gods and epic heroes of India I have endeavoured
to uniformly follow. I have also had to make frequent
use of the papers on Ancient Sculpturings on Rocks, on
The Snake Symbol hi India, on Stone Carvings at Main-
pura, and on Prehistoric Remains in Ancient India, pub-
lished in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal,
by Mr. J. H. Rivett-Carnac, CLE., of the Bengal Civil
Service, and of the papers on The Village named Maruda
in Southern Konkana, on Serpent Worship in Western
India, on The Shrine of the River Krishna at MaJia-
balesvara, and on The Shrine of Mahabalesvara, pub-
lished in the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society by the Honorable Rao Sahib
Vishvanath Narayan Mandlik, member of the Bombay
Legislative Council.

PREFACE.

Part II, on The Master Handicrafts of India, is a
reprint, with added text, of a portion of my Handbook to the
Indian Court at the Paris International Exhibition of 1878.
It was so well received, both on the Continent and in this
country by people interested in the minor arts of India,
that I resolved to publish a carefully rewritten edition of
it for general sale. I began by adding to it copious notes
from the annual Administration Reports of the local
governments of India ; and I had examined all these
reports, and all the provincial Gazetteers as yet published,
when I was asked in the early part of this year to write
a popular handbook on the industrial arts of India, in
connexion with the reopening of the India Museum under
its new administration by the Science and Art Depart-
ment at South Kensington. In undertaking this task
my intention was to write such a short sketch as I have
given of the Hindu Pantheon, without some knowledge
of which half the interest of the manual arts of India
is lost ; and to add a few general observations on the artis-
tic character of Indian manufactures. But on examining
the India Museum collections in detail, and rinding how
incomplete they were for a systematic representation
of the manufacturing resources of India, I saw that what
was most wanted was not a handbook to the contents
of the Museum, but an index to its deficiencies ; and I
therefore resolved to virtually republish a portion of my
Handbook, with new information, as the second part
of the present work. Although its preparation has been
hurried — (the Science and Art Department received charge
of the Museum only on the 1st of January last)— I hope
that it is a fairly trustworthy index of every district and
town in British India where manufactures of any special

PREFACE.

vii

artistic quality are produced ; and I believe it will prove
of some assistance to the officials of the Science and Art
Department in completing the India Museum collections,
and to the general public as a guide to the places in
India where they may obtain objects of genuine native art.

I have been much exercised with the spelling of the
modern Indian geographical names. I have never before
spelled them according to the official system, but have
been forced under various compulsions to submit more or
less completely to it on the present occasion. I have
given up Sir Charles Napier's " Scinde," but I have not been
able to give up Moore's " Cashmere." Whoever heard of the
vale of " Kashmir " ? It has been very confusing to me to
give up the old oos and ees for the new u's and z's, which
latter render it impossible for common English people to
understand anything like the true pronunciation of Indian
names. It is impossible for English people to pronounce
P-u-n-a as Poona, N-i-r-a as Neera, S-h-i-r-p-u-r as Shere-
pore, or D-a-m-D-a-m as Dum-Dum. Even if the natives
of India adopted the Roman alphabet we ought not to
spell modern Indian geographical names as they naturally
would, if our first object is to preserve the proper
pronunciation of them : for let it be clearly understood
that by the official system of spelling we are degrad-
ing their pronunciation. I saw Kurnool the other day
rhymed to skull, simply because the writer of the poem,
himself an accomplished Orientalist, had been, in a heed-
less moment, misled by the official spelling of the word
Karnul. English is English, and the spelling of English
words should be left to be settled by popular English
usage, and no attempt should be made to regulate
it by arbitrary resolutions of government. When an

viii

PREFACE.

Englishman hears a foreign sound he tries to render it
as accurately as possible by spelling it out with honest
English letters, and for the very reason that he does not
adopt a uniform system, but tackles the sound in his own
way, he arrives at last at a spelling of it which renders
its mispronunciation almost impossible. Calcutta, Madras,
Bombay, Lahore, Umritsur, Jullundhur, and Lucknow, are
pronounced by Englishmen very nearly as natives of India
pronounce Kalikata, Madraj, Bambai, Lahawar, Amritsir,
Jalindhar, and Lakhnau. It is of course convenient to
have a uniform system of spelling Indian words for the
use of international oriental scholars ; but the service of
oriental science is one thing, and correct English spelling
quite another ; and what is wanted by Englishmen is
not that a dozen or so European "pandits" should run no
risk of mistaking Indian names, but that the common
people of England, who have a practical interest in pro-
nouncing them correctly should not be led into error. It
is therefore of paramount importance that they should
"be englished rightly."

G. B.

i May i83o.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

PAGE

PARI /.— THE HINDU PANTHEON—

The sacred writings of the Hindus 2

The Itihasas 6

The Mahabharata ^

The Ramayana 2 ^

The Puranas ^3

The Code of Manu

The Tantras .„

The gods of India ^

IliE VEDIC GODS .....

The Puranic gods ... - a

The greater gods . - .

The eight Vedic "Dii Selecti " 64

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

Table of the Regents of the eight quarters of the
world

The two sons of Siva 7o

The Hosts of Heaven 72

The lesser gods and deified heroes ... 73

The "Dii Semones" 7 g

The Vahans, or vehicles of the different gods 80

Celestial attendants on the gods g 2

Infernal attendants on the gods g 2

Local deities ^

Miscellaneous sacred objects g,.

Sacred trees and plants . c

°5

Sacred animals

Sacred men

Miscellaneous sacred things

Sacred places ...

Sacred mountains

Of Mount Meru and Mount Kailasa, the Hindu Olympus 94

The Hindu sects and sectarial marks %

CONTENTS OF VOL. I. xi

PAGE

The Jainas and their twenty-four Jins 98

The Hindu temples 107

Sacrificial utensils 123

Evil influence of the Puranas on Indian art 125

The antiquity of Indian art 126

PART //.—THE MASTER HANDICRAFTS OF INDIA—

Gold and silver plate 144

Metal work in brass, copper, and tin .. 154

Damascened work .. .. ... 163

Enamels... .. ... .. . . . 165

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

A
B.
C.
D
E
F.
G.
II
I.

J.
K.
L.
M
N.
O
i.

3-
4 ■

5-
6.-

7--

ATE

. — Vedic Gods

-Vedic Gods

-Puranic Gods

, — Puranic Gods

•Puranic Gods— Avatars of Vishnu
—Puranic Gods— Avatars of Vishnu, continued

. — Puranic Gods

— Puranic Gods

. — Puranic Gcds

—Buddhist Idols and symbols
— Sectarial marks

Sacrificial utensils
— Sacrificial utensils
—Buddhist relic casket ...
—Ancient silver patera ...
—Chased gold vessel, Cashmere
-Chased parcel gilt jug, Cashmere
-Chased parcel gilt Sarai, Luck now
-Chased parcel gilt Sarai, Lucknovv

-Bowl and tray of pierced silver, parcel gilt [with
detail], Ahmedabad

To face page 54
58
62
66
70
74
73
82
86
93
94
9 S
104
110
123
144

144
H5
M5
146
146

147

xiv

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

8. — Parcel gilt and jewelled coffee-pot of Mogol period To face page

8 [bis). — Pierced and repousse silver shrine screen, Madura ,,

9. — Parcel gilt vase of Mogol period , ,

9 (bis). — Gold tray, Mysore ... ... ... ... ,,

10. — Gold dish, Mysore ,,

11. — Section of gold dish, Mysore M

12. — Buddhistic copper vase, with detail of graven

decoration... fj

12 (bis). — Tinned brass bowl, with incised ornament,
Moradabad

••• ••• >»

13. — Spice-box of Moradabad work ..

14. — Sculptured brass Lota, Tanjore ' ^

IS- — Brass Lota, encrusted with copper, Tanjore

16. — Copper Lota, encrusted with silver, Tanjore

1 7. — Copper Lota, encrusted with silver, Tanjore
!8- — Copper Lota, with hammered ornament, Tanjore ...

19. — Brass dish, encrusted with copper, Tanjore

20. — Brass figure, No. 1, Vizagapatam

21. — Brass figure, No. 2, Vizagapatam

22. — Brass figure, No. 3, Vizagapatam

23. — Brass figure, No. 4, Vizagapatam

24. — Brass figure, No. 5, Vizagapatam

2 5-— Brass figure, No. 6, Vizagapatam

26. — Brass figure, No. 7, Vizagapatam

27. — Brass candlestick, Madura...

28. — Copper-gilt sacrificial vase, Madura

29. —Teapot ?— Nipal

30. — Damascened work, and spice-box, damascened in

gold [with detail of a panel], Panjab

31. — Two panels of damascened spice-box figured in

Plate 30

147
148
148
149
149
150

150

I5i

152
152
153
153
154
154
iS5
155
156
156

157
157
158

158
159
159

160
160

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATE

32. — Sarat, damascened in silver, Hyderabad in the

Dakhan To face page 161

33-— Plate, damascened in silver, Hyderabad in the

Dakhan ? l6l

34 and 35. — Vessel and bowl, Damascened in silver,

Purniah u l62

36. — Enamelled pen and inkstand, Jaipur ) i£ 2

37. — Enamelled Sarat, Panjab M ^

38. — Enamelled Hrka stand, of Mogol period 163

39. — Casket [with details] of Pertabghar enamel ... 164

40. — Gun barrel, damascened in gold, with details ... M x 6 4

41. — Gun stock cased in ivory ^

42. — Shield, damascened in gold, Panjab m ,5^

THE

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

PART I.

THE HINDU PANTHEON.
The arts of India are the illustration of the religious life of the
Hindus, as that life was already organised in full perfection under
the Code of Manu, b.c. 900-300. Although some of the fresh-
ness of its Vedic morning was then already lost, it is life still in its
first religious and heroic stage, as we find it painted in the Rama-
yana and Mahabharata ; and we owe its preservation, through the
past three thousand years, from change and decay, chiefly to the
Code of Manu. The principles of government embodied in this
book were probably first reduced to their present form about b c

r^H, d6fenC< ; ° f Pri£Stly P ° Hty ° f the Brahmans against
the Buddhist revolution, by which it was threatened from about b c

543, the date of the death of Gautama Buddha, to the sixth a«d

seventh centuries of our era. So securely was the sacerdotal state

ystem of the Brahmanical Hindus fixed by the Code of Mann that

even the foreign invasions and conquests to which they have been

constancy subjected from the seventh century b.c. have left he

ufe and arts of India essentially the same as we find them I £

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA,

Ramayana and Mahabharata, and in the writings of the Greek
officers of Alexander, Seleucus and the Ptolemies, by which they
were first made known to the Western nations.

The intimate absorption of Hindu life in the unseen realities
of man's spiritual consciousness is seldom sufficiently acknow-
ledged by Europeans, and indeed cannot be fully comprehended
by men whose belief in the supernatural has been disturbed by the
prevailing material ideas of modern society. Every thought,
word, and deed of the Hindus belongs to the world of the unseen
as well as of the seen ; and nothing shews this more strikingly
than the traditionary arts of India. Everything that is made is
for direct religious use, or has some religious significance. The
materials of which different articles are fashioned, their weight,
and the colours in which they are painted, are fixed by religious
rule. An obscurer symbolism than of material and colour is to be
traced also in the forms of things, even for the meanest domestic
uses. Every Indian detail of decoration, Aryan, Dravidian, or
Turanian, has a religious meaning, and the arts of India will never
be rightly understood until there is brought to their study not
only the sensibility which can appreciate them at first sight, but
a familiar acquaintance with the character and subjects of the
religious poetry, national legends, and mythological scriptures
that have always been their inspiration, and of which they are
the perfected imagery.

The Sacred Writings of the Hindus.

The Hindus arrange their Sastras or sacred writings in four
groups, namely,

1. The Vedas, or " divine knowledge."

2. The Upa-Vedas, or " supplementary Vedas."

3. The Ved-Angas, or " members of the Vedas."

4. The Upangas, or "supplementary Angas."
Under these four heads every sort of knowledge is taught.

THE HINDU PANTHEON,

3-
4-

The Vedas are four also, namely,

1. The Rig- Veda, so called from rik, a verse.

2. The Yajur-Veda, so called from yaf % worship, relating to

sacrifices.

3. The Sama-Veda, so called from saman, a prayer arranged

for singing.

4. The Atharva-Veda, or Brahman a- Veda, relating chiefly to

incantations.

Each Veda is also divided into four parts, namely,

1. The Sanhita, comprising the Mantras and Ganas, or hymns
and prayers.

The Brahmanas, describing the details of the Vedic

ceremonies for the guidance of the Brahmans.
The Jnana, or Upanishads, or philosophical part.
The Aranyakas, "belonging to the forest," intended for
Brahmans in retreat, and closely connected with the
Upanishads.

The distinguishing title of Aitareya is prefixed to a Brahmana,
an Upanishad, or an Aranyaka of the Rig-Veda. The Sanhitas',
Brahmanas, Upanishads, and Aranyakas of the Vedas are desig-
nated as sruti, the « heard » word; and all other Hindu sacred
scriptures are simply smrttt, or « inspired," as distinguished from
the "heard" or directly revealed. The three great schools of
Hindu philosophy [Darsana, "demonstration"], and their three
supplementary schools, the Nyaya and Vaiseshika, the Sankhya and
Yoga, and the Purva-Mimansa ["earlier" Mimansa] and Uttara-
Mimansa ["later" Mimansa], or Vedanta, all implicitly accept
the divine authority of the Vedas, but explain them differently.
It was the Brahmans' claiming the direct revelation of the Brah-
manas that mainly led to the schism of Buddhism. The Nyaya
and Sankhya schools were probably in existence before the time
of Gautama Buddha, but the Vedanta [the "end," "object," or

B 2

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

" scope " of the Vedas,] school seems to have arisen in opposition
to the teaching of Buddhism, which was popularly regarded as
a system of atheism. To it the Vedanta school opposed the
doctrine of pantheism. But Vedantism is really nothing else
than Nihilism ; and the agnostic teaching of the Sankhya school
is the common basis of all systems of Indian philosophy.

Closely connected with the Vedas are the Sutras and Parisishtas.
The word sutra literally means a " thread" or " string," and the
Sutras are little books consisting of a string of short sentences,
giving the quintessence of the Vedas in the concisest possible form
for instructing students in the accumulated lore of the Vedas.
The Parisishtas are of later date, and, as their name indicates,
are " supplementary " to the Sutras. They are intended not
fox the instruction of the young, but to convey, in a popular and.
superficial form, to the ignorant multitude general information
regarding their religion. They mark the transition from the
Vedic to the Puranic literature of India.

The true Vedic age has been divided by Max Miiller into
four periods. The first is that of the Chhandas [" metre"], which
he fixes between b.c. 1200 and b.c. iooo, when the oldest
hymns of the Rig- Veda were first composed, and the Vedas had
not yet been reduced to their present form. The second, or
Alantra, period, he fixes between B.C. 1000 and b.c. 800 ; and
the third, or BrahmaTia, period, during which the Upanishads
also were composed, between b.c. 800 and b.c. 600. The fourth,
or Sutra, period extends the Vedic age to b.c. 200. In reality
the Rig-Veda is the only Veda, since from it almost exclusively
the Yajur-Veda and Sama-Veda are derived. Indeed they are
merely different arrangements of its hymns for special sacrifices
and other rites, and for singing. The Atharva Veda also is
sometimes not acknowledged to be a Veda at all, but only a
supplement to the others. The last hymn [sukta] of the third
book \mandald\ of the Sanhita of the Rig- Veda consists of six in-
vocations by the Rishi Viswamitra, one of which is the celebrated

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

Gayatrty or verse of eight syllables, known as " the holiest verse
of the Vedas," and " the mother of the Vedas," which it is the
duty of every Brahman to repeat at all his devotions. It is a
simple invocation to the sun, but to it in the course of ages the
most mysterious significance has become attached. It is said in
the Code of Manu, ch. vi. v. 71 : " Even as the dross of metals
is consumed by fire, so is a man purified of his sins by meditating
on the mystic word [OM], and the melodious measure of the
gayatri." The address to the sun is in these words : "Let us
adore the light of the divine sun \_savitri\ May it enlighten our
minds."

The Upa- Vedas are also four, namely,

1. The Ayur-Veda, or science of medicine, derived from the

Rig- Veda.

2. The Gandharva-Veda, or science of music, derived from

the Sama-Veda.

3. The Dhanur-Veda, or military science, derived from the

Yajur-Veda.

4- Silpa, or Sthapatya-Veda, on the mechanical arts and
architecture, derived from the Atharva-Veda.

These are all said to belong partly to the Brahmana and
partly to the Sutra periods.

The Ved-Angas, or "members of the Vedas/' composed
during the Sutra period are six, namely,

1. The Siksha, on pronunciation.

2. The Chhandas, on prosody and verse.

3. The Vyakarana, on grammar.

4. The Nirukta, in explanation of obscure words and phrases

in the Vedas.

5. The Kalpa, on religious ceremonies.

6. The Jyotisha, on astronomy.

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

The Upangasy or "additional limbs" of the Veda, may also
be arranged as six, namely,

1. The Itihasas, or epic poems.

2. The Puranas, or legendary histories.

3. The Yoga, on logic.

4. The Mimansa, on philosophy.

5. The Dharma-Sastras, on jurisprudence.

6. The Tantras, on ritual.

The Itihasas.

The two great Itihasas are the Ramayana, u the adventures of
Rama," and the Mahabharata, " the great [war of] Bharata." As
compiled works, both are attributed to the latest period of the
Vedic age. The compilation of the Ramayana may be fixed not
later than B.C. 350, and that of the Mahabharata as late as B.C.
250; and neither, in their present form, can be dated earlier than
B.C. 500. Weber has shewn that the Mahabharata was known to
Dion Chrysostom about b.c. 150; and as Megasthenes, who was in
India about b.c. 315, does not mention it, Weber places its date
between these two epochs. But there can be no doubt that the
legends of which both the Ramayana and Mahabharata consist have
come down, by tradition, from the earliest period of the Vedic
age. There are allusions in the Vedas to the existence of such
popular traditions \ and here and there, even in the Vedas, are to
be found ballad stanzas extolling the prowess of some prince
of the day, or pious king of old, which Weber has specified as the
forerunners of the epic poetry of the Itihasic period. The Rama-
yana is considered to be the older of the two great poems ; but
the Mahabharata certainly describes an earlier, or at least a less
advanced, condition of Aryan society in India. The Mahabharata
is a mythical history of the Aryan colonisation of Hindustan, and
the Ramayana of the Hindu conquest of the Dakhan and Ceylon.
The special interest of both poems is that, while they embody

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

authentic legends of the earliest period of the Vedic age, they are,
in their present form, productions of the latest period of the
true Vedic age. They thus not only afford a complete picture
of the patriarchal and heroic stages of Aryan civilisation in
India, such as could not be composed from the original Vedas
alone, but at the same time lay bare the influences by which
it was gradually brought under the religious state system of
the Brahmans as organised in the Code of Manu and re-
maining stereotyped to this day. At every turn the simple
legends of the Aryan ballad-makers are strained and distorted
until their character is wholly changed, and obviously for the
purpose of asserting the supernatural authority of the Brahmans.
We see the popular heroes of the Vedic age becoming gods,
and the shadowy gods of the Vedas gradually taking the positive
forms under which they appear in the Puranas, and have ever
since been worshipped. Fortunately there is no great difficulty,
so Sanskrit scholars say, in determining what in these epics is
heroic history, and what the craftily contrived corruptions of their
scheming compilers.

The Mahabharata.

The Mahabharata consists of 220,000 long lines, which are
said to have been first collected and arranged together, in eighteen
large volumes, by the same person, Krishna Dwaipayana, who is
reputed to have been the compiler of the Vedas and earlier
Puranas, and is commonly known by the name of Vyasa, or
"the fitter together."

The Aryas in India, before they were divided into the castes
established by the Code of Manu, are spoken of as belonging to
either the Solar Race, Surya-vansa, or the Lunar Race, Chandra-
vansa. The Solar Race, which reigned in Oudh, was the more
celebrated, and the Rama of the Ramayana is its great hero. The
Mahabharata is the relation of the long feud and final destructive

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

battle between the kindred Kauravas and Pandavas, who were
descended through Bharata from Puru, the ancestor of one branch
of the Lunar Race. The other branch was descended from
Yadu, and became extinct in Krishna and his elder brother
Balarama, who are the real heroes of the Mahabharata. Both
Yadavas and Pauravas traced back their common lineage through
Yayati, the fifth king of the Lunar Race, and Nahusha, Ayus, and
Pururavas, to Budha, the planet Mercury, arid Chandra, or Soma,
the Moon. Bharata, the son of Dushyanta and Sakuntala, the
heroine of Kalidasa's immortal drama of the Fatal Ring, was
the founder of the kingdom of Bharata, in the Doab between
the Ganges and Jumna. His son was Hastin, who built Hastina-
pura, the ruins of which are still traceable fifty- nine miles N.E.
from Delhi. His son was Kuru, and Kuru's was Santanu, whose
son, by the holy river goddess Ganga, was Bhishma, " the terrible."
Bhishma wished to marry the nymph Satyavati, the mother of
Vyasa by the Rishi Parasara. The Rishi met her as she was
crossing the river Jumna, and their son, who was born on an island
in that river, was thence called Dwaipayana. Satyavati's parents
objected to her marrying Bhishma, since any sons of theirs might
not succeed to the throne, to which he was heir-apparent ; and as
Santanu wished in his old age to marry again, Bhishma gave her
up to his father, and vowed never to marry, or to accept the
throne. She bore Santanu two sons, and so became the grand-
mother of the rival Kauravas and Pandavas. The elder son was
killed in battle by a Gandharva king ; and when the second also
died childless, Satyavati called in the sage Vyasa to marry their two
widows, and raise up seed to his half-brother. The widows were
so shocked at his frightful appearance, caused by his austerities,
that the elder one closed her eyes when he came to her, and so
gave birth to a blind son, Dhritarashtra, the father of the Kau-
ravas, and the younger turned so pale that her son was called
Pandu, " the pale," the father of the Pandavas. Satyavati desired
greatly to have a grandchild without blemish, and as the widows

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

would not look on Vyasa again, a slave-girl was made to take
their place, who became the mother of Vidura. These children
were all brought up together by their uncle Bhishma, now regent
of the kingdom. When Dhritarashtra became of age, he, being
blind, was passed over for the throne, in favour of Pandu ; but,
when the latter became a leper, Dhritarashtra was made king in
his stead. He married Gandhari, and by her had one hundred
sons, the Kauravas [so called after their great-grandfather
Kuru], the eldest of whom was Duryodhana, the "hard
to subdue,'' and an only daughter, Duh-sala. Pandu married
two wives, Pritha or Kunti, the aunt of Krishna, and Madri ; but
being a leper, he never consorted with either, and their five sons
were begotten by others, their parentage being attributed to
various deities. Kunti's three sons, Yudhishthira, "firm in battle,"
Bhima, "the terrible," and Arjuna, "the shining one," were
attributed to Dharma, a deified Rishi, the personification of
.goodness and duty, Vayu, the god of the wind, and Indra, the
feod of the firmament, respectively ; and Madri's twin sons, Nakula,
"the mongoose/' and Sahadeva, "the creeper," were attributed
|o the Aswins, or twin sons of Surya, the god of the sun. Pandu
acknowledged them all, and they are the Pandavas. Kunti had
had another son by Surya before her marriage with Pandu ; this
son was not acknowledged by Pandu, and in the fatal rivalry
|>etween the cousins sided with the Kauravas. He was called
Kama, and Kanina ["the bastard "], and his relationship to them
|vas not known to the Pandavas until after his tragical death.
The Pandavas on the death of their father were taken to the
|:ourt of their uncle, the blind Dhritarashtra, who received charge
|>f them and treated them as he treated his sons, with whom they
were instructed in the military art by the Brahman Drona. When
iheir education was. finished, a grand assault of arms was held
to enable the young princes to shew their skill and prowess
before the court of Hastinapura ; and it was in this contest
that the long gathering jealousies of the cousins first broke

io INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

into an open quarrel. Shortly afterwards the Kauravas were
sent to chastise Drupada, the king of Panchala, an old
schoolfellow of Drona' s, whom he had mortally offended by
repudiating his acquaintance. The Kauravas failing in their
attack, the Pandavas marched out to their support, and van-
quished Drupada and brought him back a prisoner to Drona, a
feat which only the more incensed the Kauravas against them.
Drupada also, burning under his humiliation, prevailed upon
two Brahmans to perform a sacrifice, by the efficacy of which
he obtained two children, a son, Dhrishta-dyumna, and a daughter,
Draupadi, by whom it was promised that he should be revenged
on Drona and the Bharata kingdom.

The Pandavas grew so rapidly in favour with Dhritarashtra
that at length he appointed Yudhishthira as Yuva-Raja [little
Raja], or heir apparent. The opposition of Duryodhana to this
act was so determined that at last the Maharaja was persuaded
to exile the Pandavas from Hastinapura; when Yudhishthira and
all his brethren and their mother Kunti [Madri had become a
sation Pandu's death] took leave of their uncle, and departed into
the great jungle toward Varanavata, the modern Allahabad. Their
exodus indicates the manner in which the Aryas gradually ex-
tended their outposts in India; and their contests with the abori-
gines, who are stigmatised under the names of Rakshasas and
Asuras, " hobgoblins " and "demons," remind the reader of the
struggles of the Dutch and English colonists with the Zulus
and Caffres in South Africa. While engaged in clearing the
Varanavata jungle, the Pandavas heard of king Drupada having
proclaimed a swayamwara, or tournament, at which his daughter
Draupadi would select a husband from among her many suitors.
The word swayamwara literally means "own choice," but as the
lady generally chose the suitor who most distinguished himself in
the athletic sports held on the occasion, it came at last to signify
a tournament, at which some beautiful damsel became the prize
of the victor. So all the Pandavas went to the swayamwara of

THE HINDU PANTHEON. n

Draupadi, but disguised as Brahmans, to hide themselves from the
Kauravas, whom they knew would be sure to be present.

The bright Arjuna outshone all other competitors in the feats
of the arena, and became the selected bridegroom; ^and great was
his joy in Draupadi as she went down to him from her seat,
" radiant and graceful as if she had descended from the city of
gods." But great was the rage of the assembled Rajas at having
been beaten, as they supposed, by a Brahman, and they were ap-
peased only when Krishna made known to them the real position
of Arjuna and the Pandavas. On this their uncle recalled them to
his court, and divided his kingdom between them and his sons,
giving Hastinapura to his sons, and Indraprastha, close to the
modern Delhi, to his nephews. It was while they were at Indra-
prastha that Krishna, who, after his expulsion from Mathura
[Muttra], had emigrated to Dwaraka [Dwarka], paid the Pandavas a
visit, and went out hunting with them in the Khandava forest, which
he and Agni, the god of fire, helped them in burning, against
the opposition of Indra, the god of the firmament or rain ; and it
<was on this occasion that Krishna received the discus and mace,
which he bears as his attributes, from Agni. Afterwards Arjuna
svent to visit Krishna at Dwaraka, whence, with the connivance
of Krishna, he eloped with Subhadra, Krishna's sister, much to
the annoyance of Balarama, her elder brother, who wished her to
marry Duryodhana, the leader of the Kauravas.

Yudhishthira having subdued all his enemies round about him,
&nd slain Jarasandha, the king of Magadha [Bihar], to avenge
Krishna, resolved to perform the raja-suya or " royal sacrifice,"
*s a solemn symbol of his supremacy over the tributary kings of
^ndraprastha, all of whom were required to be present. This
more than ever excited the enmity of the Kauravas, who to
ruin Yudhishthira invited him to a gambling match in which he
lost all he possessed and all his brothers possessed, and at last
gambled away his brothers, and himself, and Draupadi, as slaves to
the Kauravas. When Duhsasana dragged Draupadi forward by her

12 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

hair, Bhima vowed to drink his blood for the insult • and when
Duryodhana further insulted her by forcing her to sit on his
lap, Bhima vowed to break his right thigh-bone. Dhritarashtra
insisted on all the Pandavas being freed and their property re-
stored to them ; but again Yudhishthira was tempted by the dice
box, the agreement this time being that the winners should obtain
the entire kingdom, and the losers go into exile for twelve years
in a jungle, and thereafter live concealed for one year more in
a city : and again Yudhishthira lost, and with his brothers and
Draupadi went into the wilds. This is the second exile of the
Pandavas. In the jungle Yudhishthira meets his father Dharma,
who is personified goodness and duty. He asks his son all sorts
of questions about the Brahmans, and Yudhishthira answers him
in the true spirit of their rising pretensions. Bhima also meets
Hanuman, the monkey ally of Rama, who tells him the whole
story of the Ramayana, and afterwards takes him to the gardens
of Kuvera, the god of hell and of wealth, in the Himalayas,
where he found the flower with a thousand petals, the perfume
of which makes the old young and the sorrowing joyful. Arjuna
also, by the advice of his mythical grandfather, the Rishi Vyasa,
proceeded to the Himalayas, to induce Indra to grant him the
celestial weapons which would ensure him victory over the Kau-
ravas. Indra refers him to Siva, whose name is unknown in the
Vedas, but whose character is analogous to that of the Vedic god
Rudra [" roarer "], the roaring destroying and recreating god of
storms, the father of the Maruts. Siva, having been propitiated
by the course of severe austerities which Arjuna underwent, gave
him one of his most powerful weapons : and then Kuvera, Yama,
the judge of the dead, Indra, and Varuna, the oldest of the Vedic
gods, the maker and upholder of heaven and earth, and later the
god of the ocean, presented themselves to Arjuna as the regents
of the four quarters of the universe, the north, south, east, and
west, respectively, and furnished him each with his own peculiar
weapon ; after which Indra carried him away to the celestial city of

THE HINDU PANTHEON,

Amaravati, where Arjuna spent many years practising his arms.
He was then sent by Indra to fight against the Daityas (Titans), a
race of the giants or demons of the later Hindu mythology. It is
believed that the old Vedic gods, and beloved national heroes of
the Indian Aryas, were associated in this myth with Siva in order
to popularise the latter, and win over the mass of Hindus to the
Brahmans in their mortal struggle for supremacy with the Bud-
dhists. Among the authentic incidents of the second exile of the
Pandavas may probably be instanced (i) the capture of Duryodhana
and Kama by the Gandharvas, a hill tribe, subsequently converted
in the Vedas into heavenly beings, and their rescue by the Panda-
vas \ (2) the raja-suya, or royal sacrifice, celebrated by Duryodhana,
which, by an obvious gloss of later times, is described as in honour
of Vishnu, whose name occurs in the Vedas only as a lesser
divinity, the personification of the pervading energy of the sun,
but who in the Puranic age became the most popular of the
Hindu gods, and is indeed recognised by his special votaries
as the supreme god of the Brahmanical triad, Brahma, Siva, and
Vishnu 1 and (3) the attempted abduction of Draupadi by Jayad-
ratha, Raja of the Sindhus, and the husband of Duh-sala. In the
thirteenth year of their exile, the Pandavas entered the service
of the Raja of Virata [near the modern Jaipur] in disguise, and
assisted him so valorously in fighting Sasarman the Raja of Tri-
jgartha [the " three strongholds/' the modern Kangra and Jalandhar
(Doab], and repelling a wanton invasion of the Kauravas, that
when the thirteen years of their exile were passed, and the Pan-
davas declared themselves, Raja Virata gave his daughter
Uttara in marriage to Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna, and resolved
to assist the brothers in their attempt to recover their lost
kingdom. A great council of the Pandavas and their allies was
held at the marriage feast of Abhimanyu and Uttara, at which
Krishna regularly moves a resolution, which is duly seconded by
Balarama, to the effect that before entering on a war with the
Kauravas, in which the latter were sure to be defeated, an

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

ambassador should be sent to them, to counsel them to restore
half the kingdom to the Pandavas. This is opposed by Satyaki, a
kinsman of Krishna, and by Raja Drupada, in set speeches in
support of an amendment to call their allies to arms at once,
and be beforehand with the Kauravas. Krishna replies. He
acknowledges that the counsel of Drupada is reasonable, but
as regards himself, being equally related to the Kauravas and
Pandavas, he must remain neutral, and will return to Dwaraka ;
adding, "If Duryodhana will consent to a just treaty, well and
good, very many lives will be saved. If he will not, then summon
your allies to arms, but let your messengers come to me last of
all" Then Krishna returned to Dwaraka, and Raja Drupada sent
his own priest as an envoy to Hastinapura. Here another council
was at once held to receive the Brahman, when it was resolved
to send Sanjaya, who was both minister and charioteer to
Dhritarashtra, on a return embassy to the Pandavas, accompanied
by the family priest of Raja Drupada. Here it is interesting
to observe how during the time of the predominance of the
Kshatriyas, or Aryan nobility, among the Hindus, the charioteer
was always the confidential adviser and friend of his master,
and was gradually superseded only by the household priest
[purohita, literally "man put forward"] or Brahman [brahman,
literally "prayer "-bearer], who would appear to have originally
been the family cook. Sanjaya, in turn, is received in council and
tries to persuade the Pandavas to return to Hastinapura without
insisting on any pledge to receive back half the kingdom. But
the Pandavas were not to be put off with mere offers of amity
and protection, and in the end Sanjaya is respectfully dismissed,
with the message to Duryodhana that the five Pandavas will be
content with nothing less than the restitution to them of the
five districts of Bharata. On his return to Hastinapura, Sanjaya
had a secret interview with the Maharaja Dritharashtra, who
spent all the following night in consultation with Vidura, and
in the morning called his sons to council, and sent for Sanjaya,

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

who delivered to them the message from Yudhishthira. They
could come to no agreement, and no answer was returned
to the Pandavas. Then Yudhishthira applied for advice to
Krishna, who offered to go as ambassador to Hastinapura ; and
this offer being accepted, Krishna selected a prosperous moment,
and, having bathed and worshipped Surya and Agni, went
his way to Hastinapura. He sent forward a messenger to
announce his approach, and Vidura advised that a deputation
of the chieftains should go forth to meet him, but Duryodhana
objected. On entering the city Krishna was received by all
the Kauravas except Duryodhana, and took up his lodging in the
house of his aunt Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas. The Brah-
mans of Hastinapura paid the highest honours to him ; and it is
evident that the compilers of the Mahabharata intend here to
represent Krishna as an incarnation of Vishnu. When he pro-
ceeds to council, Narada the Rishi, to whom so many of the Vedic
hymns are ascribed, and one of the attendants of the throne of
Brahma, and the other Rishis, appear in the heavens to meet him,
and take their seats beside him. Krishna counsels peace, and
appeals strongly to the Maharaja to be just to the Pandavas.
The Maharaja entreats him to use his influence with Duryo-
dhana : " He refuses to listen to his mother Gandhari, or to the
pious Vidura, or to the wise Bhishma, and if you can move my
wicked son, you will be acting like a true friend, and I shall be
greatly obliged." Then Krishna reasons with Duryodhana, and
Bhishma and Drona and Vidura remonstrate with him. He only
becomes more exasperated, and, being encouraged by the evil
advice of Duhsasana, abruptly leaves the assembly. Gandhari
brings him back and rebukes him before the council, but he
again leaves it accompanied by Duhsasana, Kama, and Sakuni.
Then Krishna revealed his divinity. All the gods issued from
his body at once, and flames of fire from all his members, and
the rays of the sun shone forth from the pores of his skin : and
all the assembly closed their eyes, and there was an earthquake,

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

and great fear fell on all. Then in a moment Krishna re-
assumed his humanity, and took leave courteously of the
Maharaja, saying, i ' I forgive you, but when the son is bad, the
people will curse the father also." The whole of this legend
of Krishna is admitted to be a Brahmanical interpolation, and
marks a stage in the development of the Krishna of the
Kshatriya ballads into a manifestation of Vishnu. There
was nothing to be done now but prepare for the great
battle. The Kauravas entrenched themselves in the plain of
Kurukshetra, i.e. "the field of the Kurus," the plain between
the Saraswati and Jamna, where are Taneshwar and Panipat,
and elected Bhishma their commander. The Pandavas elected
Dhrishtadyumna to command them ; and falling into their
ranks, with drums beating, marched forth to meet the Kau-
ravas. They halted beside a lake which lay between them and
the Kauravas, and on the other side they dug a great trench.
They appointed also signs and watchwords, so that at night-
time every one might pass in safety to his own quarters, and the
guards be ever on the alert. For a day or two challenges were
interchanged, in very abusive language, between the two camps.
Then certain rules were agreed to on both sides, of the nature
of a Geneva convention, for mitigating the horrors of the coming
battle. There was to be no stratagem or treachery, but fair stand-
up fighting ; there was to be a perfect truce between the combats ;
fugitives, suppliants, drummers, and chariot-drivers were to be
treated as non-combatants ; no combat was to take place without
warning, or between unequals ; no third warrior was to intervene
between two combatants ; and no fighting was to take place
during the preliminary abusive challenges. In the battle which
followed, which represents a real event in the early history of the
Aryas in India, the combatants utterly disregarded these rules,
which are clearly of subsequent Brahmanical origin. The dis-
sertation on the geography of the world with which the charioteer
Sanjaya entertains his royal master on the eve of the battle is

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

another Brahmanical interpolation; as is also the dialogue held
before both armies on the morning of the first day of the battle,
between Arjuna and Krishna, who acted as Arjuna's charioteer.
It is known as the Bhagavad-Gita, or " song of the divine one,"
that is Krishna, and, with the Bhagavata Purana, is the text-book
of the Puranic worship of Krishna as Vishnu. It is a protest
against war, but the conclusion reached is that when fighting
becomes a duty we must enter on it valiantly, without heed to the
sin of slaughtering others. The battle lasted eighteen days. On
the second day the King of Magadha [Bihar] and his two sons are
slain by Bhishma. The third day is distinguished by a tremendous
charge of the Pandavas in half-moon formation. On the tenth day,
Bhishma is wounded in single combat with Arjuna, when the com-
mand devolved on Drona. On the thirteenth day Drona draws
up the Kauravas in the form of a spider's web ; into which the
youthful Abhimanyu drives his chariot, and is overpowered by
six of the Kauravas and slain. On the fourteenth day Arjuna
slays Jayadratha, and the battle rages all through the following
night by torchlight. On the fifteenth day, Dhrishtadyumna slays
Drona, who is succeeded in the command of the Kauravas by
Kama. On the seventeenth day Bhima slays Duhsasana. After
stunning him with a blow of his mace, he caught him up by the
waist, and whirled him round and round his head, and then dashed
him to the ground, shouting : " This day I fulfil my vow against
the man who insulted Draupadi." Then he cut off his head,
and holding his two hands to catch the blood he drank it off,
crying out, "Haha! never did I drink of anything so sweet
before.' 7 On the same day Arjuna slays Kama, who is succeeded
as commander of the Kauravas by Salya, who was slain on the
eighteenth and last day of the battle by Yudhishthira, when the
utter defeat of the Kauravas followed. Duryodhana concealed
himself in the lake which separated the two camps, but was
soon discovered and forced out to engage in single combat
with Bhima. The latter, after a desperate encounter, smashed

18 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

Duryodhana' s right thigh-bone, as he had vowed to do for the
insult offered to Draupadi thirteen years before; and when
Duryodhana fell, he foully kicked him on the head, and left
him for dead. This greatly excited the wrath of Yudhishthira, and
after the battle Bhima fell at the feet of his eldest brother
and wept and implored pardon for his sin. Then Krishna
sounded his shell with all his might, and proclaimed the reign
of Raja Yudhishthira; and all the people who were present
rejoiced greatly and filled the air with acclamations of " Long
live Raja Yudhishthira ! "

The Pandavas proceeded at once to the camp of the Kauravas
and obtained a great spoil. Afterward they went on to Hastinapura,
where the most affecting interviews took place between them and
the Maharaja Dhritarashtra and his queen Gandhari. Meanwhile
Aswatthama, the son of Drona, had entered their camp by
treachery, and slain their five sons. He took their five heads
to Duryodhana and offered them to him as the five heads
of the Pandavas. Duryodhana in the twilight was unable to
distinguish them, but he rejoiced greatly, and asked that the head
of Bhima might be placed in his hands. With dying energy he
pressed it with all his might, and when he found that it crushed
within his grasp, he knew that it was not the head of Bhima, and
reproached Aswatthama bitterly for slaying harmless youths, saying
with his last breath : " My enmity was against the Pandavas, not
against these innocents." Draupadi prayed for revenge on Aswat-
thama, but Yudhishthira represented that he was the son of a Brah-
man, and that revenge must be left to Vishnu. The burning of the
bodies of the dead Rajas followed, and it is noteworthy that there
is no reference in this account to the sati or later Hindu custom of
widows immolating themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands,
nor do any Brahmans appear to have officiated on the occasion.
The Kauravas having died fighting bravely, their spirits ascend
to the heaven of Indra. After the burning of the slain, Yudhish-
thira with his brethren entered Hastinapura in triumph, and was

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

r 9

installed as Raja, in the room of Duryodhana, under the nominal
sovereignty of Dhritarashtra. When he was firmly established in
the kingdom, he resolved to celebrate the great sacrifice known as
the aswa?nedha, or sacrifice of a horse. It was an assertion of a
Raja's pretension to supremacy over the whole world. A horse
of a particular colour was procured, and let loose to wander a year
at its will. Its entrance into any foreign kingdom was virtually a
challenge to its Raja, either to submit to the supremacy of the
Raja to whom the horse belonged or to offer him battle. More-
over, a Raja who thus began an aswamedha and failed to secure
the restoration of his horse, became disgraced in the eyes of his
subjects and neighbours. If, on the contrary, he succeeded in
forcing the submission of the Rajas into whose territories his horse
successively strayed, and thus at the end of the year brought it
back triumphantly again to his own city, the animal would be
sacrificed to the gods in the presence of all the Rajas who had
become tributary, and the aswamedha would be closed by a grand
feast, at which the roasted flesh of the horse would be eaten as an
Imperial dish. 1 The rite has long since disappeared from Indian
life, but the mythical character attributed to it in the Mahabharata
shews the deep impression made by it three thousand years ago
on the minds of the people, who naturally in time came to associate
it with the earlier fables of the passage of the sun through the
heavens. The twelve adventures of the horse which Yudhishthira
loosed are twelve legends connected with the countries over which
the sun is supposed to shine in his annual course. Arjuna followed
the horse, and at the end of the year returned in triumph with it
and the conquered Rajas to Hastinapura. The concluding cere-
monies of the great function were altogether seventeen, of which
the chief were the offering of the homa [Sarcostemma viminale]
and the sacrifice of the horse, that is, the roasting of the
horse, and the brewing of the intoxicating liquor for the feast,
the real significance of which was not religious but political.
1 The History of India, Talboys Wheeler, vol. i. p. 378.

C 2

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

The aswamedha of Yudhishthira is followed in rapid succession
by the retributive tragedies which close the story of the
Mahabharata. Dissensions arise between Bhima and the old
blind Maharaja, who cannot forget the cruel deaths of his sons
at the hands of Bhima. At last, with his heart-broken queen
Gandhari, and Kunti, his brother's widow, and the saintly Vidura,
he retires into a jungle on the banks of the Ganges. Here,
to console him, Vyasa raises up the ghosts of those who were
slain in the great battle of Bharata. They appear all in their pomp
as when they lived : and the Brahman compilers of the Mahabharata
illustrate a deep truth of human nature when they describe the
dead Kauravas as meeting the living Pandavas in perfect friend-
ship, " for all enmity had departed from among them, and each
went forward preceded by his bards and eulogists, who sang the
praises of the noble dead." Thus the night passed away in
fulness of joy between the dead and the living: and when the
morning dawned, the dead all mounted their chariots and horses
and disappeared. Shortly after this the jungle to which Dhrita-
rashtra had retired was consumed by a fire, in which the old king
and his queen, and Kunti, and all who were with him, perished.
The Pandavas were smitten with supernatural remorse and horror
at this event, and ever deepening darkness fell on them for
the rest of their days. Fearful omens followed. Every one
felt that something terrible was impending, but no one knew
how and when it would happen. It came to pass in the destruc-
tion of Dwaraka, the capital of Krishna's kingdom of Gujarat,
by an earthquake. The apparitions which are said to have
appeared to its inhabitants are evidently the visions of deliriwn
tremens, following the abuse of wine which was the besetting
sin of this city. The chieftains are described as constantly in-
dulging in wine parties, and insulting the Brahmans. Suddenly
the chakra or disc of Krishna was caught up to heaven ; and the
ensigns of Krishna and Balarama, the palmyra-tree of Balarama,
and the bird Garuda of Krishna, separated -themselves from the

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

standards on which they were figured, and disappeared in the
heavens. The Apsarases, the nymphs of Indra's heaven, appeared
in the sky, and cried out to the people, " Arise and be ye gone ! "
In a tumult created by a drunken Yadava with the Brahmans, all
the Yadavas were slaughtered by one another, and the sons and
grandsons of Krishna were among the slaughtered. Balarama had
already taken flight, and died of exhaustion in the jungle, where
Krishna, who followed him, was accidentally slain while resting
against a tree, by a hunter named Jara, who mistook him for a
deer. Hearing of his death, Arjuna proceeded to Dwaraka, and
performed his funeral rites and those of his father Vasadeva
and all the Yadavas who had been slain. The residue of the
race he gathered together to take back with him to Bharata;
and scarcely had they left the city when the sea arose in a
great heap, and overwhelmed it, and all who remained in it. On
his return march, Arjuna's caravan was attacked by robbers ; and
when he reached the plain of Kurukshetra, five of Krishna's
widows burnt themselves at a funeral pile, while the remaining
widows became devotees, and retired into the jungle. When
Yudhishthira heard from Arjuna all that had happened in Dwaraka
to the Yadavas, he also resolved to give up the concerns of this
world. He divided the kingdom of Bharata between the grandson
of Arjuna and the only surviving son of Dhritarashtra, and, enjoin-
ing them to live in perfect amity with each other, he took off
all his jewels and royal raiment, and clothed himself investments
made of the bark of trees ; and he and his four brothers threw
the fire of their domestic cookery and sacrifices into the Ganges,
and went forth with Draupadi from the city of Hastinapura, fol-
lowed only by their dog. First walked Yudhishthira, then Bhima,
then Arjuna, then Nakula, then Sahadeva, then Draupadi, and
last their dog ; and they went through all Banga [Bengal] toward
the rising sun, until they reached the everlasting rampart of the
Himalayas, and Mount Meru, the highest heaven of Indra. But
it did not fall to all of them to enter in their bodies of flesh into

22 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

the heavenly city. Their sins and moral defects prevented them.
First by the wayside fell and perished Draupadi, " too great was
her love for Arjtma" ; next Sahadeva, "he esteemed none equal to
himself"; then Nakula, "he esteemed none equal in beauty to
himself " ; then Arjuna, " for he boasted, ' In one day could I de-
stroy all my enemies, and fulfilled it not ' " ; then Bhima, " because
when his foe fell, he cursed him." Thus Yudhishthira went on
alone with his faithful dog, and as he went, Indra appeared to him,
and invited him to enter his heaven. But Yudhishthira refused to
enter unless assured that Draupadi and his brethren would be re-
ceived also, saying, " Not even into this heaven would I enter with-
out them." He is assured that they are there already, and is again
asked to enter, (t wearing his body of flesh," but refuses, unless his
faithful dog also may bear him company. Being admitted with
his dog, he, by the effect of may a or illusion, does not at first find
Draupadi and his brothers there, and refuses to remain, and insists
on joining them in hell, where they are made to appear to him
suffering horrible tortures. Far rather would he suffer with his
dear friends of earth in hell than enjoy one moment of heaven
apart from them. Having thus endured the last test of the
true humanity of his soul, the whole scene of cruel deception
vanishes, and he, with Draupadi and Viis brothers, and all the
Pandavas, dwell for ever with Indra in joy unspeakable.

Thus closes this history of the fratricidal struggle of the Pan-
davas and Kauravas. It is impossible to give any account of the
exhaustless legends of Krishna, the Hindu women's darling god,
apart from his connection with the main action of the Maha-
bharata; or of the separate episodes of Nala and Damayanti,
Devayani and Yayati, and Chandrahasa and Bikya, three exqui-
site pictures of Hindu life, illustrating, respectively, faithfulness in
love, marital infidelity, and the fickleness of fortune. " The read-
ing of the Mahabharata," say the Hindus, " destroys all sin . . .
so much so that a single sloka [distich or couplet] is sufficient
to wipe away all guilt. This Mahabharata contains the history

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

of the gods of the Rishis [i.e. Vedic gods] .... It contains
also the life and actions of the one god, holy, immutable, and
true, who is Krishna ... As butter to all other food, as
Brahmans to all other men ... as amrita to all other panaceas,
as the ocean to a pool of water, as the cow to all other quadru-
peds, so is the Mahabharata to all other histories. ... It is called
Mahabharata because once upon a time the gods placed the
Mahabharata on one scale, and the Vedas on the other, and
because the Mahabharata weighed heavier, it was called by that
name, which signifies the greater weight." 1

The Ramayana.

The Ramayana consists of 96,000 lines, and is divided into
seven books, and its author, or compiler, was Valmiki, who is
represented as taking part in some of its scenes. It illustrates a
far more advanced state of Aryan civilisation in India than the
Mahabharata. It refers to a time when the empire of the Aryas,
having been firmly established in Bharata [Delhi], Kosala [Oudh],
Magadha [Bihar], Mithila [Tirhut], and throughout Hindustan,
had advanced to the conquest of the Deccan and Ceylon ; and
the epic character of the poem is more perfectly elaborated than
in the Mahabharata. It is evidently founded on fact, for all the
traditions of Southern India ascribe its subjugation and the dis-
persion of the wild aboriginal tribes to Rama, the conqueror of
Lanka, who is the first real Kshatriya hero of the later Vedic
age. Rama Chandra, the hero of Valmiki's epic, probably re-
presents in himself two distinct historical Ramas, an earlier, who
ruled in great glory at Ayodhya, and a later, who upheld the
Brahmans against the Buddhists, and enabled them to establish
the linga worship throughout the Dakhan. He is, in fact, the
Rama of an ancient Aryan tradition, who is condemned to exile
through the jealousy of his stepmother, and ultimately is restored
1 Compare Baryta, "Heavy-spar."

24 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA,

to the throne of his ancestors, coalesced with a Rama, the pro-
tector of the Brahmans of the Dakhan against the Buddhists j for
it is certain that the Buddhists were driven out of the Dakhan by
the worshippers of Siva, and compelled to take refuge in Ceylon : 1
nor is the presumption inconsistent with the deification of the
hero of the Ramayana as a manifestation of Vishnu. Its story,
as compiled by Valmiki, covers the whole period of the rise and
triumph of Buddhism, and of the first reaction of the Brahmans
against it : and as in the Mahabharata the Brahmans sought to
enlist the popular sympathies in their favour by representing
their god Vishnu as identical with the Kshatriya hero Krishna,
so in the Ramayana Vishnu is represented as identical with
Rama also: and Vishnu is worshipped all over India to this
day either as Krishna or Rama ; while the worship of Rama
prevails particularly in Oudh and Bihar. There are three Ramas
in Hindu mythology, all of whom are represented as avatars or in-
carnations of Vishnu, namely : (i) Parasu-Rama, literally " Rama
with the axe," who is known also as " the First Rama/' the im-
personation of Brahmanism militant against the Kshatriyas, and
is the sixth avatar of Vishnu; (2) Bala-Rama, the " boy-Rama,"
or Halayudha-Rama, t\e. "Rama with the plough," Krishna's
elder brother, who takes Krishna's place as the eighth avatar
of Vishnu, when Krishna is regarded as absolutely identical
with Vishnu himself ; and (3) Rama Chandra, the " moon-like "
or "gentle Rama," known also as " Rama with the bow" [i.e. the
crescent moon], the seventh avatar of Vishnu. He is the great
hero of the Aryan Solar Race, or Surya- Vansa, which sprang from
Ikshwaku, the son of the Manu Vaivaswata, the son of Surya,
the sun : and typifies the conquering Kshatriyas advancing from
Hindustan into the Dakhan, and subduing the barbarous abori-
gines, and again the secular leader of the Brahmanical priest-
hood, expelling the Buddhists. He belonged to the dynasty of
the Solar Race which reigned at Ayodhya, the modern Oudh,
1 Talboys Wheeler, History of India, vol. ii. pp. 233, 234.

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

and was the son of King Dasaratha ! and the Ramayana is the
story of the loves of Rama Chandra with Sita ; of her abduction
by Ravana, the demon king of Lanka or Ceylon ; and of her
recovery by Rama, with the aid of the Monkey chief, Hanuman,
and their triumphant return to Ayodhya. The opening scene is
laid at Ayodhya, which is described like Indra-prastha, but in far
greater detail, as an ideal Hindu city and state. The king Dasa-
ratha had three queens, Kausalya and Kaikeyi and Sumitra, but
no son ; and although he took seven hundred and fifty women into
his palace, still not one of them bore to him a son. Then he
resolved to perform an aswamedha, or sacrifice of a horse, and
thus propitiate the gods to give him a son. A horse was let loose
for an entire year, and then brought back; the sacrificial pits
were prepared, and arranged in the form of the bird Garuda, the
vehicle of Vishnu, and the fires kindled } the horse was slain,
while hymns were chanted from the Sama Veda, and its carcase
laid upon the fire; and the three queens were placed beside
the carcase of the horse, the nearest to it being Kausalya.
Then after this the Rishi Sringa performed the homa sacrifice
for obtaining sons for the Maharaja Dasaratha, and while he was
sacrificing, Vishnu appeared to him out of the fire with a golden
vessel filled with the divine payasa, saying, "0 sage, do you
receive this vessel of payasa from me and present it to the
Maharaja." The Rishi replied, "Be pleased yourself to deliver
this vessel to the Maharaja." Then Vishnu said to Dasaratha,
" O Maharaja, I present to you this ambrosia, the fruit of sacri-
fice .... let it be eaten by your beautiful queens. Dasaratha
gave half of the payasa to Kausalya, and a half between Kaikeyi
and Sumitra; and in due time they bore to him four sons;
Kausalya bore Rama, Kaikeyi bore Bharata, and Sumitra bore
Lakshmana and Satrughna. Rama partook of half the nature
of Vishnu, and Bharata of a quarter, and Lakshmana and
Satrughna each of an eighth; and throughout their lives all
the brothers lived in perfect friendship, but Lakshmana devoted

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

himself particularly to Rama, and Satrughna to Bharata. Vishnu
had promised the gods to become incarnate in order to destroy
Ravana, the Demon King of Lanka, and in this manner chose
Dasaratha for his human parent. Every section of the Ramayana
is invaluable for the student of the art history of India, but
it is impossible to enter here into these details. In the first
section the boyhood of Rama is described with the most interest-
ing minuteness; how he began to speak by saying "Pa" and
" Ma," and calling himself " Ama," " because he could not yet
pronounce the letter R " ; his first attempts at walking ; his
dresses, his toys j and how he cried for the moon, refusing to be
comforted until Sumantra, the chief minister of the king, brought
in a looking-glass, and gave it to Rama to hold up to the moon,
and so placed the moon in Rama's hand. 1 We are next told of
the piercing of his ears in his third year, of the rites of his initia-
tion in his fifth year, of his investiture with the sacred cord in his
eleventh year, and of his youthful sports. * One day when shoot-
ing with a bow that belonged to a companion he bent it so
forcibly that it broke in two, on which his companion said to him :
" You have strength enough to break my bow, but if you would
really show your strength, you should go to the city of Mithila and
break the great bow of the god Siva, which is kept there by the
Raja Janaka .... The Raja has vowed to give his beautiful
daughter Sita in marriage to the man who can break the great
bow of Siva." Rama pondered much on this in his heart, and
when, after destroying the Rakshasas who infested the outskirts of
Kosala, the destined time had come, he set out with his brother
Lakshmana and the sage Viswamitra for Mithila. When the
Raja Janaka saw them approaching, he asked: "Who are these
two youths, bright and beautiful as the immortal Aswins?"
and Viswamitra replied: "They are the sons of the Maharaja

1 In the French nursery rhymes the child cries for the moon, which is
brought down to him by its reflection in a bucket of water, into which he is
incontinently tipped head foremost.

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

Dasaratha, the conquerors of the Rakshasas, and are come to try
and bend the great bow of Siva." Then Rama, smiling, bent the
bow until it broke ; and obtained the hand of Sita, who was so
named from sita, a furrow, because she sprang out of the ground
before his ploughshare while her father was ploughing a field.
Lakshmana was married to her sister Urmila, and Bharata and
Satrughna, who came with their father to Mithila to attend the
espousals, were married to the two nieces of Janaka. On their
way back to Ayodhya, they were met by the terrible apparition
of Parasu-Rama, the Brahman destroyer of the Kshatriyas ; and
when Vasishtha and the other sages saw him, they said: "Will
the great Rama again destroy the Kshatriyas?" But Parasu-
Rama turned to Rama Chandra, saying : "You have broken the
divine bow of Siva, but I have another bow which Vishnu gave to
me, and with it I have conquered the whole world. Take it, and
if you can bend it, I will give you battle." The heroic Rama,
smiling, drew it, and discharged the arrow into the sky, saying to
Parasu-Rama, " As you are a Brahman I will not discharge it
at you " ; and Parasu-Rama knew then that Rama Chandra
was Vishnu, and fell down and worshipped him. Rama's honey-
moon being passed, his father resolved to crown his son's
happiness by formally recognising him as Yuva-Raja ["little
Raja "] or heir-apparent. Then at once the palace intrigues, with
which all who know the life of Indian courts are so familiar,
begin, and do the work of the avenging Nemesis, which ever,
in the conception of the ancient world, attends on human
felicity. Kaikeyi, Dasaratha's second and favourite queen, had
always been kind to Rama, but a spiteful female servant now
worked on her feelings, and roused her jealousy on behalf of
her own son Bharata against him ; and thus it came about that
after a long struggle Dasaratha was prevailed upon at the last
moment to proclaim Bharata as Yuva-Raja instead of Rama, for
whose installation every preparation had been made ; and Rama
was ordered into exile. So Rama, with Sita and Lakshmana,

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

bade farewell to the Maharaja and the three queens, and de-
parted into the forests amid the lamentations of the whole
city of Ayodhya. They passed through Sringavera, the modern
Sungrur, and Prayaga, the modern Allahabad, a sacred Brahman
town at the junction of the Ganges and Jumna, where they
rested at the hermitage of Bharadwaja, the father of old
Drona in the Mahabharata; and then came to Chitra-Kuta,
a celebrated hill, south of the Jumna, in Bundelkhand, where
was the hermitage of the sage and bard Valmiki, the author
or compiler of the Ramayana. From Chitra-Kuta, Rama sent
back his charioteer to Ayodhya, the people of which city, seeing
him return without Rama, again filled the air with their lamenta-
tions. Dasaratha was distracted by his grief, and, while imploring
forgiveness of Kausalya, the mother of Rama, fell back and died
in her arms. Messengers were at once sent off to Bharata, who
was absent, to return and assume the sovereign authority, but he
refused, and, heaping bitter reproaches on Kaikeyi, his mother,
declared his loyal attachment to Rama as his king, and comforted
Kausalya on the prospect of her son's speedy return to Ayodhya.
After the funeral rites of Dasaratha had been duly performed
[they are described with the utmost minuteness], Bharata called
the great Council, to which he announced his intention of visiting
Rama for the purpose of installing him as king ; and at once set
off for Chitra-Kuta. Rama refused the Raj, until the term of his
father's sentence of banishment against him was fulfilled. Bharata
as firmly refused to ascend the throne ; and at length it was arranged
that Bharata should return and reign as Rama's vicegerent. The
ten following years of his exile were passed by Rama and Sita
and Lakshmana in going from one hermitage to another. In this
way visiting the sage Atri, near the forest of Dandaka, the sage
Sarabhanga, who burns himself on a funeral pile, and the sage
Satikshna at Ramtek near Nagpur, they came to the hermitage of
the sage Agastya, in Mount Kunjara, to the south of the Vindhya
Mountains. Agastya received them with the greatest honour,

THE HINDU PANTHEON. 29

and gave Rama the bow of Vishnu. The district was infested
by Rakshasas, and a Rakshasi named Surpa-nakha, the sister of
Ravana, seeing Rama, fell in love with him. He referred her to
Lakshmana, who referred her back again to Rama, which so in-
furiated her that she first incited her two brothers Khara and
Dushana to attack them, and then tempted her brother Ravana,
the demon king of Lanka, the conqueror of Vasuki, the Naga
king of Patala, and of Kuvera, the god of hell and wealth,
to carry off .Sita. He arrived from Lanka in an aerial chariot,
and, luring Rama from his home, approached Sita in the form of
a religious mendicant, and thus found the opportunity for seizing
and making off with her. Rama and Lakshmana searched for her
everywhere, but could not find her ; when at length they come
upon Jatayus, the king of the Vultures, and son of Vishnu's bird
Garuda, lying prostrate on the ground. He had seen Ravana
carrying off Sita and tried to prevent him, and been beaten back
mortally wounded, and was able only to say: "O Rama, the
wicked Ravana, the Raja of the Rakshasas, has carried away Sita
toward the south." The mighty chief of the Vultures then looked
up into the face of Rama, his eyes became fixed, and he died.
At that moment the clouds opened, and a chariot of fire
descended from Vaikuntha, which is the heaven of Vishnu, with
four attendants therein; one carried the conch-shell, another
the discus, the third the mace, and the fourth the lotus,
which are the ensigns of Vishnu; and as the soul of Jatayus
arose from his dead body, they caught it up with them into the
heavens again, and it became absorbed in Vishnu. Then Rama
and Lakshmana proceeded into the south country, the Dakhan,
and on their way killed the monstrous Rakshasa Kabandha,
who was once a divine Gandharva, and as his real spirit, that
of a heavenly minstrel, issued forth from his body, it advised
Rama and Lakshmana to seek the aid of Sugriva, the king of
the monkeys, or literally, woodsmen, the same word, bandar,
meaning a monkey or a forester. He had been dethroned

3 o INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

by his brother Bali or Balin; and Rama overcame Balin, and
reinstated Sugriva as king at Kishkindya; and in return Sugriva
and his general Hanuman became the allies of Rama in his
war against Ravana. Their armies passed over by " Rama's
bridge " into Ceylon, and there, after many battles, the city of
Lanka was taken, and Ravana slain, and Sita recovered. Rama
was filled with joy at seeing Sita again, but, jealous for her
honour, refused to take her back until her innocence had been
proved by the ordeal of fire. She entered the flames in the
presence of men and gods, and Agni, the god of fire, led
her forth, and placed her in Rama's arms unhurt. Then
Rama, with Sita, and Lakshmana, and all his allies, returned
in triumph to Ayodhya, and was solemnly crowned Maharaja,
and began a glorious reign, Lakshmana being associated with him
in the government. Thus ends the sixth section of the Rama-
yana in perfect happiness and peace ; and the seventh section,
which concludes it, the uttara-kanda, is really a later section,
and is justly held by the Hindus as too painful for contemplation.
From it we learn that Rama continued to feel jealous on account
of Sita's abduction by Ravana. One day it happened that Sita,
in telling her handmaids of her captivity in Lanka, had drawn a
portrait of Ravana on the floor of her room, and Rama, seeing
this, and not knowing why it had been drawn, flew into a rage
against Sita, and determined to put her away. She was taken to
the hermitage of Valmiki. There she gave birth to her two sons,
Lava and Kura. As they grew up, they distinguished themselves
greatly by their valour, and are recognised by Hanuman as the
sons of Rama, and then by Rama himself, just as he is about
to give them battle for seizing a horse he had let loose for an
aswamedha, undertaken in expiation of his sin for slaying
Ravana, who, though a demon, was still a Brahman. Then
Valmiki went back for Sita, and, taking her by the hand, led her
to Rama, and gave her into his hands, saying : " Your sons
have revenged on Rama all the evil he has done to you." And

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

they all returned together to the city of Ayodhya, and per-
formed the aswatnedha, and passed the rest of their days in
happiness without end. In the Adhyatma Ramayana, a part
of one of the Puranas, the boys wander accidentally into
Ayodhya, and are recognised by their father, who at once ac-
knowledged them, and recalled Sita to attest her innocence. She
returned, and in public assembly called upon her mother, Earth, to
attest her innocence ; and the earth opened, and there arose out
of the chasm a glorious throne, and on it sat, in the form of a
lovely woman, the incarnate Earth, who, extending her hand to
Sita, took her to her throne ; when again the earth opened, and
the throne sank, and the earth closed for ever over the faithful
Sita, "the daughter of the furrow." Rama, unable to endure life
without her, "sacrificed himself in the river Sarayu," in other
words, committed suicide by drowning. Such is the story of
the Ramayana to its termination. The Hindus hold that,
" whosoever reads, or hears read, the life-giving Ramayana is
freed from all sin. Whosoever reads it, or .hears it read, for the

purpose of obtaining a son, will certainly have one A

Brahman reaps the same advantage as by reading the Vedas,
and a Kshatriya conquers his enemies, and a Vaisya is blessed
with riches, and a Sudra gains a good name by reading the
Ramayana, or hearing it read." Again, it is said, " As long
as the mountains and rivers shall continue, so long shall the
story of Rama and Sita be read in the world." And nightly
to listening millions are the stories of the Ramayana and
Mahabharata told all over India. They are sung at all large
assemblies of the people, at marriage feasts and temple services,
at village festivals and the receptions of chiefs and princes. Then,
when all the gods have been duly worshipped, and the men are
wearying of the meretricious posturings and grimaces of the
dancing girls, and the youngsters have let off all the squibs and
crackers, a reverend Brahman steps upon the scene, with the fami-
liar bundle of inscribed palm-leaves in his hand, and, sitting down

32 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

and opening them one by one upon his lap, slow and lowly begins
his antique chant, and late into the starry night holds his hearers,
young and old, spellbound by the story of the pure loves of
Rama and Sita; or of Draupadi, who too dearly loved the
bright Arjuna, and the doom of the froward sons of Dhrita-
rashtra. Or in a gayer moment some younger voice rings out the
stirring episode of Bhima's fight with Hidimba the Asura, or the
hilarious distichs which tell of the youthful Krishna's sports with
the milkmaids \ and so with laughter and with farewell greetings
the assembly breaks up ; when all walk off, like moving shadows,
to their homes, through the cool palm -groves, and moonlit
fields of rice, and the now silent village streets. In India the
Ramayana and Mahabharata, Rama and Sita, Hanuman and
Ravana, Vishnu and the Garuda, Krishna and Radha, and the
Kauravas and Pandavas are everywhere, in sculptured stone
about the temples and the carved woodwork of houses, on the
graven brass and copper of domestic utensils; or painted in
fresco on walls, Rama, like Vishnu, dressed in yellow, the colour
of joy, Lakshmana in purple, Bharata in green, and Satrughna
in red. The figures carved on the ivory combs used by the
women, and painted on the back of their looking-glasses, or
wrought in their jewelry and bed-coverings and robes, are
all illustrations of characters, scenes, and incidents, from one
or other of these heroic histories. From them the later dramatists
and poets have taken all their stories and songs, the historians
their family genealogies, and the Brahmans their popular poly-
theism and moral teaching. They contain and shew in a poetical
form the whole political, religious, and social life of India past
and present, and will probably continue to nourish and reflect
it in all the variety and picturesqueness of its traditional
composition, action, and colouring, as long as the race of Brah-
manical Hindus shall endure as a separate and self-contained
religious polity. They are the charm which has stayed the course
of time in India, and they will probably continue for ages yet to

THE HINDU PANTHEON. 33

reflect the morning star of Aryan civilisation in that country,
fixed, as it were, in the heaven of Indra, and irremovable. The
Persian and Greek invasions, the Afghan and Mongol conquests,
exercised no lasting effect on the national mind of India,
which has ever in the end subdued to its nature all the conquerors
of that glorious land, in their social life, their administration,
and arts ; and the thoughts and feelings, and habits and customs,
of the Hindus will probably never be changed except under
influences of a purely indigenous origin, proceeding from the
development of the internal consciousness of the race. Buddhism,
although it perhaps owed its establishment as a state religion to
the foreign domination of the Scythic Nagas, who entered India
in the seventh century B.C., was essentially a spontaneous move-
ment in the democratic life of India, and endured for a thousand
years, yet it also at last yielded to the organised resistance of the
Code of Manu, and the mighty magic of the Ramayana and
Mahabharata.

The Puranas.

The word purana means " old," and hence an ancient tradition,
and the Puranas treat of the same historical legends and mytho-
logical fictions as the Itihasas, and in their earlier forms doubtless
belong to the same religious and heroic age of Hindu civilisation
as the Ramayana and Mahabharata. But they give a more definite
and connected representation of the cosmogony and theogony
of these poems, and they expand and systematise their chrono-
logical computations and genealogies. They reduce, in fact, the
formless and fleeting religious conceptions of the Vedas, and the
popular family traditions of the Itihasas, to a fixed body of definite
mythology. The Vedic gods are mere abstractions, intangible
and illusive personifications of the powers of nature, the rain
[Indra], the light [Surya], the heat [Agni], and wind [Vayu],
whose effects on their crops were at once felt by an agricultural

IND U STRIA L ARTS OF INDIA.

people, and to which the Vedic Aryas made their supplications
according to their daily need, and ascribed their heartfelt praise
when at length abundant harvests crowned the labours and
anxieties of the year. In the Puranas the gods assume substantial
shape and individual character; and for the first time a para-
mount place is given to the sacrificial rites and observances
of their worship. In Vedic times there were no priests. In
the times of the Itihasas the sacerdotal pretensions of the
Brahman s became prominent, but the father of a family, or
head of a state, still performed the highest religious ceremonies,
such as the marriage of a daughter, or the sacrifice of a horse,
without the necessary intervention of a priest. In Puranic times
the Brahman is the only possible minister of the service of the
gods, and the indispensable mediator between them and their
worshippers.

The technical definition of a Purana is a work which treats
of five topics, namely, (i) the creation of the universe, (2) its
destruction and renovation, (3) the genealogy of the gods and
patriarchs, (4) the reigns of the Manus, forming the periods
called Manwantaras, and (5) the history of the Solar and Lunar
dynasties. The eighteen Puranas are arranged in three groups,
of six in each.

1. Those in which the quality of sattwika or goodness and
purity prevails, which dwell on the stories of Hari or Vishnu
and Krishna, named (1) Vishnu, (2) Naradiya, (3) Bhagavata,
(4) Garuda, (5) Padma, and (6) Varaha.

2. Those in which tamasa, or gloom and ignorance, pre-
dominate, relating to Agni or Siva, named (1) Matsya, (2)
Kurma, (3) Linga, (4) Siva, (5) Skanda, and (6) Agni.

3. Those distinguished by rajasa or passion, which treat
chiefly of Brahma, named (1) Brahma, (2) Brahmanda, (3) Brah-
mavaivarta, (4) Markandeya, (5) Bhavishya, and (6) Vamana.

None of them however are really devoted to one god,
and Vishnu and his incarnations fill nearly all. The most

■■■■HBBMHME

. THE HINDU PANTHEON. 35

comprehensive and complete is the Vishnu Purana, and the most
popular the Bhagavata Purana. The rest are very little known
except to Brahmans. There is another Purana known as Vayu,
supposed to be older than all, connected with the Siva and Agni
Puranas, and substituted for either of these in lists in which the
one or the other of them is omitted.

There are also eighteen Upa-Puranas. The Puranas are
evidently works of different ages. Probably none assumed their
present popular form earlier than the time of Sankara Acharya,
the great Saiva reformer and founder of the Vedanta philosophy
who lived in the eighth or ninth century of our era. Of the cele-
brated Vaishnava teachers Ramanuja lived in the twelfth century,
Madhva-Acharya in the thirteenth, and Vallabha-Acharya in
the sixteenth, and the Puranas seem to have followed their *
innovations, being evidently intended to advocate the doctrines
they taught : and they must all have since received a supple-
mentary revision, because each one of them enumerates the
whole eighteen. There is very little true and unbroken historical
record of anything in India until after the consolidation of
the British conquest of India at the beginning of the present
century.

The Code of Manu.

The Manu-Sanhita, Manava Dharma Sastra, or Institutes of
Manu, commonly known as the Code of Manu, is attributed, by
itself, to the first Manu [the word is from the Sanskrit root man,
to think], Swayam-bhuva, who sprang from Swayam-bhu, the
" self-existing " [identified with Brahma] ; and by others to the
Manu of the present period, the seventh Manu, or Vaivaswata, the
son of Vaivaswat, the sun. In the Hindu mythology the name
belongs to the fourteen praja-patis, or forefathers of all creatures,
each of whom presides over the destinies of men for a period,
called a Manwantara, of 4,320,000 years. In the Rig-Veda

d 2

36 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA,

Vaivaswata is the father of the Aryas and the whole human race ;
and it has been conjectured that his name was applied by its
compilers to the Code of Manu to reconcile the Brahmanical
law to the Aryan Kshatriyas. It is far older than the Puranas, its
mythology exhibiting indications of the compromise with the re-
ligion of the Vedas which is observed in the Ramayana and Maha-
bharata. The Vedic worship was simply the natural expression of
the gratitude of men for their daily bread; who, before sitting
down to their meals, instinctively offered of the meat and drink
before them to the gods from whom they believed these blessings
came. In the Code of Manu these childlike oblations of food
and wine are superseded, or overlaid by an elaborate ritual of
essentially a sacrificial and propitiatory character. But the Vedic
gods are not yet so completely set aside as in the Puranas,
although they are all rigidly subordinated to Brahma, the especial
deity of the Brahman s. Nor again have we yet in the Code of
Manu any indications of that wholesale absorption of the pantheon
of the aboriginal races of southern India which, as the later Puranas
shew, was gradually forced on the Brahmans. The Code is on
analogous grounds proved to be also older than the Ramayana and
Mahabharata, in their present form, for it makes no allusion to the
Kshatriya heroes Rama and Krishna, who are declared in theltihasas
to be incarnations of Vishnu. Brahmanism would seem to have
first originated among Aryan colonists who established themselves
between the valleys of the Indus and the Ganges about a thousand
years after the Aryan conquest of the Panjab. While confined to
the Panjab, the Aryas still remained a Vedic people, but on
crossing over into the valley of the Ganges, they gradually
became Brahmanical Hindus. The original country of the
Brahmans extended, according to the Code of Manu, along
the slopes of the Himalayas between the Sarsuti and Kagar:
— " Between the two divine rivers Saraswati [Sarsuti] and Dris-
hadwati [Kagar] lies the tract of land [about 100 miles N.W.
of Delhi] which the sages have named Brahmavata, because it

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

was frequented by the gods." Again: — " Kurukshetra [the
field of the Kurus, the country about Panipat], the Matsyas
[the country about Jaipur], the Panchalas [the Gangetic Doab
and Rohil-khand], and the Surasenas [the country about Mathura,
Muttra], This land, which comes to Brahmavata, is the land
[Brahmarshi-desa] of the Brahmarshis " [Brahmanical Rishis].
' 'Here dwelt the ancient princes and sages of Hindu mythology.
Here was the magnificent Sanskrit language perfected. Here the
decimal notation was perfected. This is the Holy Land of India." 1
Aryavarta, the land of the Aryas, is said to be the whole tract of
Hindustan between the Himalaya and Vindhya ranges, and the
Bay of Bengal [" eastern sea"] and Arabian [" western"] sea : and
the Code of Manu expressly forbids any Brahman, Kshatriya, or
Vaisya from living beyond the Aryan pale as thus defined. Five
centuries later the Aryas had so completely occupied the Dakhan
that Ptolemy, the geographer of the second century a.d., and
Arrian, his contemporary, distinguished western India by the name
of Ariake : and arya is the name of the Marathas among the
Konkanese of the present day, and the Mangs and other outcasts
who represent the conquered native tribes of the southern Maratha
country. 2 The Code of Manu thus plainly distinguishes be-
tween the country of the Brahmans, and the whole Aryan land,
and it was probably in Brahmavata, or the Brahmarshi-desa, that
the conceptions of priestly rule formulated in the Code of Manu
first originated in the contact of some Turanian tribe with the
Aryan immigrants into Hindustan from the Punjab about B.C.
1500. In its present form it dates from probably not earlier than
b.c. 500, and possibly as late as b.c. 300. We are told that it
originally consisted of 100,000 verses; that Narada shortened
the work to 12,000"; and that Sumati still further abridged it
to 4,000; but only 2,685 are extant. It is the only Hindu law

1 Quoted from Pope's Text Book of Indian History, third Edition, Allen
and Co., London, 1880; ch. i. para. 5.

2 Wilson's India Three Thousand Years Ago ; Bombay, 1S58.

3 S INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF -INDIA.

book necessary to mention here, being the one held in the
„ highest reverence, and the legal foundation of the whole social,
religious, economical, and political system of Hindu life.

The first chapter describes the Creation. The Supreme Being
having willed to create the universe, first c/eated the waters, and
placed in them a productive egg, and In that egg He himself
was born in the form of Brahma. The waters were called
7iara, because they were produced by Nara, the "Spirit of God "
moving on them, and since they were his first arya?ia or " place
of motion," he is hence called Narayana, or " moving on the
waters." That the human race might be created he caused
the Brahmans, the possessors of the Vedas, to proceed from the
mouth of Brahma ; the Kshatriyas, or protectors, from his arm j the
Vaisyas, or producers of wealth, from his thigh ; and the Sudras,
or labourers, from his feet. These are the four original classes
of Hindus, or sacerdotal, military, industrial and servile castes.
The Brahmans possibly represent the Shamans, or magicians of
the prehistoric Turanian immigrants into India ; the Kshatriyas
their Aryan conquerors ; the Vaisyas, the mixed Aryas and earlier
settlers and aborigines; and the Sudras, the conquered earlier
settlers, and true aborigines of India. The Purusha-Sukta, or
''Hymn [sukta] of the First Man" [Purusha] in the Rig- Veda,
mentions the names of these castes — " When they produced
Purusha ... the Brahman was his mouth ; the Rajanya [prince]
was his arms ; the Vaisya was his thighs \ and the Sudra sprang
from his feet." But the Hymn is considered to be one of the
latest in date, and the passage quoted from it to be only figurative.
The Brahmans in the Vedas are only a profession. The term
kshatriya is used in the Vedas to denominate a person possessing
power, as a raja or king, and rajanya or prince : and the term
vaisya is applied to any householder [from vesha a house, Greek
ot/co's, Latin vicus\ and so to people in general. The Sudras were
probably a Cushite people who preceded the Aryas in India, and
were dispersed by them. These four divisions of the Brahmanical

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

Hindus are now wonderfully subdivided according to country,
race, sect and occupation • and only the Brahmans retain the
homogeneity of their order, as established by the Code of Manu.
Next we are told that Brahma in himself became half male and
half female, or active and passive in nature, and from his
female half produced Viraj. Viraj produced Manu Swayam-
bhuva, and he the seven other Manus, and the ten Prajapatis,
and they the seven Rishis, or Bards, and the Pitris, or Fathers
of Mankind. And Brahma having taught Manu " the Code of
Manu," he taught it to Maricha, and the nine other Prajapatis.
The sacred chronology is next expounded. There are four
classes of days : ist, of mortals ; 2nd, of Pitris, which lasts a
lunar month; 3rd, of the Devatas, which lasts a solar year,
and 4th, a day of Brahma, which lasts 4,320,000,000 years;
The year of the gods consists of 360 mortal years. The first
age, or Krita Yuga, lasted 4,800 years of the gods; the second,
or Trita Yuga, 3,600 ; the third, or Dwapara Yuga, 2,400 ; and
the fourth, or Kali Yuga, the present, or " Black Age," which
began about b.c. 3101, is limited to 1,200 years of the gods.
The four Yugas make up the Maha Yuga, or great age : and
one thousand Maha Yugas form a Kalpa, or day of Brahma.
This is the Brahmanical chronology of the Code of Manu, but
along with it there is the recognition of the chronological
system of Manwantaras, based on the reigns of successive
Manus, evidently handed down from Vedic times. Each Manu
was supposed to reign for 4,320,000 years.

The second chapter, " On Education, or on the Sacerdotal
Class, and the First Order," distinguished between the revealed
[sruti] and inspired [smriti] scriptures, defines the limits of
Brahmavarta, Brahmarshi-desa, and Aryavarta, which latter is
also said to be coextensive with the natural range of the
Black Antelope; and prescribes the duties of the four castes.
The ceremonies to be observed at conception, during pregnancy,
at the birth of a child, and at its naming on the tenth or

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

twelfth day after birth, are fully described. The first part of a
Brahman's compound name should indicate holiness, of a Kshat-
riya's power, of a Vaisya's wealth, and of a Sudra's contempt ;
and the second part of a Brahman's name prosperity, of a
Kshatriya's preservation, of a Vaisya's alms, and of a Sudra's
humility. The names of women, it is said, should be soft, clear,
and captivating, ending in long vowels like words of benediction.
In the fourth month of its age the child should be carried out to
see the sun, and in the ninth should be fed on rice, " or that may be
done which by the mother is thought most propitious." The cere-
mony of the tonsure should be performed by the first three classes
in the first or third year after birth : and in the eighth year from the
conception of a Brahman, in the eleventh of a Kshatriya, and in
the twelfth of a Vaisya, the child must be invested with the
sacred cord or sacrificial thread ; or it may be in the fifth, sixth,
and eighth year respectively. The sacrificial thread of the Brah-
man must be of cotton only, of the Kshatriya of hemp only, and
of the Yaisya of wool only. The staff of the Brahman should
be of bilva or palasa, of a Kshatriya of bata or chadiva, and of
a Vaisya of vtnu or adcunbara. In the .case of women the
nuptial ceremony is considered to take the place of the investi-
ture of boys with the sacrificial thread, as the last purifica-
tion fitting them to enter on life, marriage being held to be
the complete institution of a woman. "Such is the revealed
law of the institution of the twice-born classes, an institution in
which their second birth chiefly consists." After initiation the
life of every man is divided into four stages or orders, namely,
(i) that of brahmachari, or student of the Vedas; (2) of grihastha
or married man and householder ; (3) of vana-prastha or hermit,
and (4) sannyasi or devotee. Few, except Brahmans, ever enter
on the duties of the last two orders, but the system of these four
orders is universally recognised by Hindus. The directions for
reading the Vedas, and governing the relations of students and
their teachers are most minute and rigorous. Three classes of

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

Brahman teachers are recognised, (1), the acharya, or spiritual
preceptor; (2), the upadhya, or schoolmaster proper, who in-
structs in pronunciation, grammar, metre, the explanation of
words, astronomy, and ceremonial; and (3), the ritwij or
sacrificer. The Brahman in beginning or ending his lecture must
always pronounce " the three-in-one syllable, AUM or OM.
" Sitting on culms of kusa grass, with all their points, towards the
east, or rising sun, and purified by rubbing that holy grass in both
his hands, and further prepared by three suppressions of breath,
each equal in time to five short vowels, he may then fitly breathe
the syllable OM. Brahma milked out as it were from the three
Vedas [Manu does not recognise the 4th Veda], the letter A, the
letter U, and the letter M, which form the triliteral monosyllable,
together with the mystical words \yyahritis\ bhur, bhuvah, swar, or
earth, mid-air or sky, and heaven ; and the three measures of that
ineffable text beginning with the word tad, entitled the savitri
[sun] or gayatri." The syllable AUM is the symbol of the Hindu
tri-murti, or ' triple-form," A being Vishnu, U Siva, and M Brahma;
and from the Nirukta, or ancient glossary of the Vedas, we learn
that the separate letters of this mystic syllable refer -also to Agni
[fire], Indra [sky], or Vayu [air or wind], and Surya, [sun]:
and further that all the gods are resolvable into these three.
Every god is thus included in the mystic syllable AUM or OM.
The Brahmans, by the application of this symbol to their tri-
murti, mean to assert that Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, include
the whole Vedic gods. The words bhur, bhuvah, swar, earth, mid-
air or sky, and heaven, signify the same thing, as also do the
three conceptions of the sun as the Supreme Deity, as the God-
head, and as the Illuminator of his worshippers, set forth in the
" three measures " of the gayatri. Thus three times before every
act does a Brahman fix his mind on Brahma as the god of all
gods.

The third chapter is " On Marriage and the Second Order," in
which the whole duties of a householder are prescribed, namely,

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

the daily sacrifice at every meal to the Rishis or Vedic bards,
by the reading of the Vedas ; to the Vedic Pitris, or departed
forefathers, by the offering of cakes and water ; to the Devatas
or Vedic gods by the offering of ghee, that is, clarified butter j to
the Spirits of all things existing, of the air, the water, the earth,
by the offering of rice ; and to men by the exercise of hospi-
tality, particularly towards Brahmans. It is emphatically declared
that he who partakes of food before it has been offered in
sacrifice as above prescribed, eats but to his own damnation.

The daily sacrifices to the Devatas, and to Spirits and
Ghosts, are most instructive. The Code directs the oblations
of ghee, for the propitiation of the Vedic gods, to be offered
firstly to Agni [fire], secondly to Soma [the moon], thirdly to
Agni and Soma together, fourthly to Kuhu [the day in its first
and second quarters], fifthly to Anumati [the day in its third
and fourth quarters], sixthly to the Prajapatis [the lords of creation],
seventhly to Dyava and Prithivi [heaven and earth], eighthly
to the fire of the sacrifice, and ninthly to the four quarters,
Indra [east], Yama [south], Varuna [west], and Soma [north-
east]. Here we see Indra, Yama, Varuna, and Soma, who
were worshipped by the Vedic Aryans as great and independent
deities, reduced to the position of guardians of the four quarters
of the earth.

In the propitiation of the spirits, after the rice had been
cooked, every twice-born householder was to offer it according to
the following ritual : i. He was to throw boiled rice near his door,
saying, « I salute you, O Maruts 99 [storms]. 2. He was to throw
boiled rice in the water, saying, « I salute you, O water gods."
3. He was to throw boiled rice in his pestle and mortar, saying,
" I salute you, O god of large trees." After this he was to throw
rice near his pillow to Sri, or Lakshmi ; at the foot of his bed to
Bhadra-Kali, or Durga; in the middle of his house to Brahma,
and the Lar; and up into the air to all the gods ; by day to the
spirits who walk in light, and by night to the spirits who walk

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

in darkness. He was then to throw his offering for all creatures
in the building, on the top of his house, or behind his back ; and
what remained he was to offer to the Pitris with his face to the
south. Here we find the worship of the fetish Maruts, which
in the Vedas are already opposed to Indra, prominently introduced.
Next follows the propitiation of Lakshmi the wife of Vishnu,
and of Devi, or Kali, the wife of Siva.

The ceremonies of marriage are elaborately developed, as
also those of the sraddha or feast of the dead. A supreme
importance is attached to the due observance of these funeral
rites, one name for the Brahmans being " gods of the obsequies."
The funeral sraddha has to be performed within a fixed period
after death, or of hearing of the death of a near kinsman. A
monthly sraddha has to be performed for every near paternal
ancestor, and the daily sraddha for Pitris, or remote ancestors, as
already stated.

The fourth chapter is " On Economics or Domestic Morals/'
and treats of the various means of earning a livelihood ; and here
it is laid down that service for hire, or " dog-livelihood," must by
all means be avoided by the twice-born. No livelihood may be
pursued that impedes the study of the sacred scriptures, nor may
money be made by any art that pleases the senses, such as music
and dancing, or by taking gifts indiscriminately. Strict rules are
laid down for giving and receiving presents and accepting alms \
and a number of daily and other periodic religious observances
are prescribed ; also the manner of bathing.

The fifth chapter is " On Diet, Purification, and Women," and
enters most minutely into every particular on which the twice-born
can possibly require guidance. The sixth chapter, " On Devotion,
and the Third and Fourth Orders," is for the regulation of the
lives of the vatiaprastha or hermit, and sannyasi or devotee.
The seventh chapter, "On Government and Public Law," lays
down the duties of kings, and of the Kshatriyas or governing
class.

44 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

The eighth chapter is "On Judicature, and on Civil and
Criminal Law;" the ninth "On the Commercial and Servile
Classes ; " the tenth " On the Mixed Classes, and on Times of
Distress ; " and the eleventh chapter, " On Penance and Expiation,"
concludes the Code.

The seventh chapter supplies a systematic contemporary ac-
count of the social and religious institutions of ancient India,
just as with very slight modifications they still exist. The village
system it describes is the permanent endowment of the tra-
ditionary arts of India, and has scarcely altered since the days of
Manu. Each community is a little republic, and manages its own
affairs, so far as it is allowed, having rude municipal institutions
perfectly effectual for the purposes of self-government and protec-
tion. Its relations with the central Government are conducted by
a headman, and its internal administration by a staff of hereditary
officers, consisting of an accountant, watchman, money-changer,
smith, potter^ carpenter, barber, shoemaker, astrologer, and other
functionaries, including, in some villages, a dancing girl, and a poet
or genealogist. This whole chapter is of the deepest interest.
The form of government it enforces is in marked contrast with the
feudal type of the original Vedic traditions to be found running
through the Brahmanical revisals of the Ramayana and Maha-
bharata. All traces of patriotism, and of the sentiment of devotion
to the common weal, or loyalty to great national leaders, which
are found in every true Aryan race, and certainly characterised the
Vedic Aryas of India, and which are essential to the preservation
of the liberties and independence of states and empires, have
been eliminated from the sacerdotal system of Manu. It re-
cognises only the narrow interests of the family, the village, and,
in a very limited degree, except among Brahmans, the caste.
Thus for nearly three thousand years it has suppressed all sense of
nationality and public spirit in India, while fostering to the utmost
the self-contained life of the petty religious communes, which
possess no other bond of union but that of a religion organised

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

expressly to bring the forces of progress inherent in every Aryan
race into subjection to the dominant priesthood. The kings
and the people are integral parts of a divine law of which only
the Brahman is the rightful administrator. But while the system
failed utterly to provide for the external defence of the country 7 ,
it has rendered it proof against internal revolution. It is the
true charter of the landed democracy of India, and in giving
permanence to the proprietorship of the peasantry in the soil of
the country, it has conserved Hindu society intact and unaltered
through successive overwhelming invasions and a thousand
years of continuous foreign rule. India is in fact the only Aryan
country which has maintained the continuity of its marvellous
social, religious, and economical life, from the earliest antiquity
to the present day.

The Tantras.

The Tantras represent the lowest abasement reached by
the Brahmans in their endeavours to bring the aboriginal
races of India under their power. The word signifies "rule"
or "ritual," and the Tantras are a numerous class of works,
generally of late date, devoted to the worship of the sakti,
prakriti, or female energy of nature, as represented by the
wives of Vishnu and Siva. But it is not Lakshmi who is
worshipped as Vishnu's sakti, but Radha, the mistress of the
amorous Krishna, the other-self of Vishnu ; and by far the most
popular object of Tantric worship is Devi, in one or other of her
manifold forms. Each sakti is regarded as having a twofold
nature, white or gentle, and black or fierce; Uma and Gauri
being the gentle forms of Devi or Parvati, and Durga and Kali,
the fierce or black ; and the five essential elements of the worship
of either nature are wine, flesh, fish, parched grain, and intercourse
of sexes. The worshippers are also divided into two orders, Dak-
shinacharis, or right-handed, and Vamacharis, or left-handed ; and

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

the rites, or rather orgies, of the latter are licentious beyond
description. Tantric worship prevails in its grossest forms
among most of the lower races of India, and particularly in
parts of Bengal. Its influence on Indian art, however, is
almost inappreciable.

The gods of India.

Having said so much on the general subject of Hindu my-
thology, I shall, in particularising the individual gods to be now
enumerated, restrict myself as much as possible to a bare tech-
nical description of their forms, colours, and attributes. They
are enumerated simply as a key to the universal symbolism of
Indian art. In the accompanying engravings Mr. Reid has been
careful to give as clear a definition as is possible on so small
a scale of their distinguishing attributes.

They naturally fall into the two groups of the Vedic and the
Puranic gods.

The Vedic gods.

There is no systematic theology in the Vedas. The hymns
of the Rig-Veda are the first and freshest expression of the sense
of beauty and gladness awakened in the Aryan race by the
charms and the bounty of nature • and the gods of the Vedas
are in their apparent origin no more than poetic epithets of space,
the heavens, the firmament, sun and earth, day and right, twilight
and dawn, wind and rain, storm and sunshine; all ministering
to the divine care of man, in the breathing air and radiant
light, the fleeting moon and constant stars, the rising mists and
falling dews, and the rivers which flow down from the hills through
the fruitful plains, making with the flocks and herds, and woods
and fields, one ceaseless voice of praise and adoration. The
etymological meaning of most of these epithets is so clear that

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

it at once explains the myths, which, in the course of time, became
attached to them. Thus the Vedas shew exactly how the words
uttered three thousand years ago by the Vedic bards or rzs/iis,
gradually became the gods of India, Greece, and Rome. They
are the real theogony of the Aryan race. 1

These worshipful epithets began to be transformed into more
or less questionable personifications of the natural appearances
and operations to which they were applied in the Vedic age
itself ; but even in the case of those Vedic gods which assumed
the most undoubted personality, we seldom or never lose
sight, in the Vedas, of the real qualities intended to be ex-
pressed by their names. They have no fixed hierarchy, or
regular genealogy, no settled marriages and relationships; and
they remain to the last transparent reflexions of those physical
phenomena and powers of which they are the earliest known
appellations. It is only in the Puranas that they become in-
vested with a strong personality, and it is in their order among
the Puranic gods that the conventional representation of them
in the later mythology of the Hindus will be more appropriately
described. The Rig-Veda refers to thirty-three gods in the
following verse : " Gods who are eleven in earth, who are
eleven dwelling in glory in mid air, and who are eleven in
heaven, may ye be pleased with this our sacrifice and the
Brahmans, by adding, according to their manner of puerile
exaggeration, seven ciphers to this number, have multiplied it
to 330,000,000. Indeed, in the Rig-Veda itself we see the
beginning of this mode of increasing the glory of the gods of
India, in the verse : " Let the three thousand, three hundred,
and thirty-nine gods glorify Agni."

Agni [ignis], the personification of fire, was one of the most
ancient, and is still one of the most sacred objects of Hindu
worship. He appears as fire on earth, as lightning in mid air,
and as the sun in heaven. He is one of the three great Vedic
1 MaxMuller's * « Comparative Mythology " in Oxford Essays for 1850.

48 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

deities ; Agni [fire], Indra [the firmament], or Yayu [the wind],
and Surya [the sun], who respectively preside over earth, the
sky or mid-air, and heaven ; and in the Vedas more hymns are
addressed to him than to any other god.

Indra, the firmament, sky, or mid-air, is equal in rank with
Agni, but, unlike Agni, is not uncreate, being already represented
as having a father and mother. He is described as of a golden
or ruddy colour, but of endless forms, and he rides in a bright
golden car, drawn by two tawny orange horses, and is armed with
the vajra, or thunderbolt, and a net in which he entangles his
enemies. He also uses arrows. He is attended by the dog
Sarama, identified by some with Us has, the dawn. He delights
in drinking the intoxicating soma, the anirita, or water of life, or
immortality of the Vedas. He sends the rain, and rules the
weather, and more hymns are addressed to him in the Vedas than
to any other god excepting Agni ; while in the Puranic pantheon
he ranks after the triad [Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva], chief of all
the other gods. Strabo describes the Hindus as worshippers of
Jupiter Pluvius, meaning Indra. There is another Vedic per-
sonification of rain named Parjana, and the name is sometimes
combined with the word Vata, a Vedic personification of wind,
in the form Parjana- Vata.

Vayu [air, wind] is the great Vedic personification of wind,
and is generally associated and often identified with Indra. His
other names are Pavana, "the purifier," Gandha-vaha, "bearer of
perfumes," and Satata-gata, "ever moving." Vata ["wind"]
is generally the same as Vayu, but sometimes they are mentioned
distinctively.

Surya is the personification of the sun, and is identified with
Savitri, "the nourisher," Viswaswat, "the brilliant," and Ravi,
and Aditya.

The Nighantu, or Glossary of the Vedas, arranges the names it
gives of all the gods as synonyms of Agni, Indra or Vayu, and
Surya; and in the Nirukta, or etymological glossary [forming one of

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

the Vedangas] it is twice asserted that there are but three gods
and over and over again that these three are but varying forms
of one. In the Rig-Veda, VrsHNu, "the pervader," is named as
a mamfestation of the Sun, with tri vikrama, or "of triple-
power," for one of his epithets; referring to his three places on
earth, in nnd-air, and heaven, as Agni, Indra or Vayu, and Surya
This Vedic triad is obviously the prototype of the Puranic tri-
murti, or " tripleform," Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.

Soma is the Vedic personification of the intoxicating juice of
the soma plant, and as it was gathered by moonlight, the name
was appropriated in later times to the moon, Chandra, and
some of the qualities of the juice were transferred to that
luminary as Oshadhi-pati, "lord of herbs."

Varuna [o,V><m>V|, « the universal embracer and encompasser *
is one of the oldest Vedic deities, the personification of the all-
investing sky, the maker, and upholder of heaven and earth
Later he becomes the god of the sea.

Yama, " the restrainer," with his twin sister Yamuna, is the per-
sonification of the first human pair, and hence of death, and in
the later mythology, of judgment. He has for his watchdogs'the
two Sarameyas, born of Sarama, Indra's dog.
_ K cjvera, in the Vedas, is the chief of the evil spirits living
in the shades, and the god of wealth.

These are the eight Vedic gods which received the most
developed mythological personification, and they all rank as
dU select!, immediately after Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, in the
first order of the celestial deities-the dii majorum gentium-oi
the Puranic pantheon.

In the Vedas the firmament is also personified by Dyaus
"the heavens," or Dyaus-pitri [Zeus-pater, Jupiter], the "heavenly
father." Prithivi, "the wide world," is the earth mother, and
Dyava-Prithivi, " heaven and earth," are represented as the uni-
versal parents, not only of mankind, but of all things living
Ushas [4^ Aurora], the daughter of Dyaus, is the dawn, one of the

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA,

most beautiful of the Vedic myths \ and before her go, the day's
harbingers, the ever young and bright Aswins, who are personifi-
cations of the twilight which precedes the dawn, and identical with
the twin sons of Zeus and Leda. The Apsara [nymph] Urvasi is
another name of the dawn, and the story of her loves with Purura-
vas is a myth of the absorption of the mists of morning by the
rising sun, similar to the Greek fairy story of Kephalos and Procris.
Nakta [vv£ 9 vwcrds], the night, is a goddess. Aditi ["free," " un-
bounded,"] is space, infinity, personified, and she is termed in the
Rig- Veda Deva-matri, " mother of the gods." The twelve Adityas
are her sons, and are the sun in the twelve months of the year.
The Daityas, or Titans, who war against the gods, are the sons
of Diti, the antithesis of Aditi. Mranyagarbha, literally " golden
womb" or egg, Prajapati, " father of creatures," Skamb/ia, "ful-
crum," Daksha, the personification of creative energy, Dhatri,
" maker," Mitra [the Persian Mithra], and other names, are all
personifications of the sun. This fact is shewn also by their being
numbered among the Adityas, but they are appellations of the
solar power rather than distinct personalities. The twelve Adityas,
namely, Mitra, Aryaman, Bhaga, Varuna, Daksha, Ansa, Indra,
Savitri, Dhatri, Ravi, Yama, and Surya; and seven Vasus, attendants
on Indra, namely Apa [water], Dhruva [the Pole star], Soma [the
moon], Dhara [Terra, the earth], Anila [fire], Prabhasa [the
dawn], and Pratyusha [light] ; and the eleven Rudras, or Ugras,
who are sons of Rudra [howler or roarer], the terrible god of
storms, and appear to be identical with the Maruts, form the Tri-
dasa, or company of " three times ten " gods. The Viswadevas
[" all the gods "] in the Vedas form a band of nine gods. The
Yoni-deva [of " divine birth"] is another general name for
the inferior deities. The Bhrigus, "roasters," are spoken of as
producers of fire, and chariot makers, connected with Agni.
The Ribhus are three brothers, Ribhu, Vibhu, and Vaja,
celebrated smiths who made Indra's chariot. Viswakarma, " the
omnificent," is the architect of the heavens, and identified

THE HINDU PANTHEON. $i

originally with Surya and Indra. Twashtri in the Rig- Veda is
the ideal artist, the framer of the world, who forges the thunder-
bolts of Indra, and is associated with the Bhrigus and Ribhus.
Like Hephaistos, he is represented as deformed in his legs. The
Pitris are the ghosts of the ancestral "fathers." Sindhu, the
Indus, is a god, and all the other rivers of the Sapta-Sindhava
[Panjab and Sind] are goddesses. Bharati, the earth, as
possessed by man, and Saraswati, the personification of ' the
seventh river of the Panjab in ancient times, and Ida or IIa 9
the personification of milk and wheat, are the three Vedic god-
desses of song and praise. Aranyani is the goddess of woods
and forests, the Afityas are water goddesses, the Apsaras, or mists,
are the nymphs of Indra's heaven, of whom the loveliest is Urvas{
and the Gandharvas, originally a hill tribe, are the celestial
minstrels of whom in the later mythology Narada becomes the
leader. The principal demons named in the Vedas are the
"black" Dasyus, the "niggard" Pams, and the Pakshasas, all evi-
dently referring to the wild tribes who infested the neighbourhood
of the early settlements of the Aryas in the Panjab, and the
Asuras. In the oldest part of the Rig-Veda this word is used for
the Supreme Spirit, and is the same as the Ahura of the Zoroas-
trians; but in the latter parts of the Rig- Veda it signifies, as in
the Puranic mythology, a demon, and this change in its meaning
probably grew out of the religious quarrel of Indian Aryas with
the Persians, which led the Persians to use the Hindu word
devas, or " gods," for devils, and the name of Indra for the devil him-
self, Andar. In Persian Ahura-Mazda is Hormazd, the "multi-
scient master," the sun. In the Vedic and Puranic mythology
everything seems directly or indirectly to merge in, or radiate from,
the sun, Surya. The Arushas ["red"] of the Rig- Veda and
Rohitas ["red"] of the Atharva-Veda are the red horses of the
rising sun ; and the Haritas [« green "], or green horses, are typical
of the radiant beams of the rising and setting sun. The winged
horse Tarkshya is a very ancient mythological personification of the

E 2

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

sun. The other mythical animals of the Vedas are the serpents
Ahi zxA Vitra, the demons of drought, and Sarama, the watch-
dog of Indra, and mother of the two Sarameyas, attendants of
Yama. The breath of life is personified by Frana, speech as
Vach, divine providence by Pttshan, faith by Sraddha y the outraged
conscience by Saranyu, vice as Agha } and death by Nirriti. One
of the most remarkable personifications is that of the hearing of
prayer by the god to whom it is addressed. This is personified in
the Rig-V eda as Brahmanaspati, or Brihaspatu In one place he
is called the father of prayer, and he certainly foreshadows the
priestly office of the Brahmans. He too is identified with the
sun, for it is Agni who is addressed as Brahmanaspati, " the lord
of prayer," and in one place he is named Brahma, "he of
prayer," brahma in the neuter gender meaning " prayer." Briha-
spati in the Vedas is not the planet with which he is afterwards
identified as its regent; but Sukra, identical with Usanas, the
planet .Venus, and its regent, is mentioned in the Sama-Veda as
intoxicated with the soma juice. Vastoshpatz, the "house
protector," is one of the later gods of the Vedas. The Rishis, or
reputed authors of the Vedic hymns, play a great part in the sub-
sequent Puranic mythology as progenitors of the gods and heroes,
and the following are the principal: Agastya, Angiras, Arch-
ananas, Asanga, Atri, Bharadwaga, Bhrigu, Budha, the four
Gaupayanas, sons of Gopa, the authors of four remarkable hymns
in the Rig-Veda, Gritsamada, Kakshivat, Kanwa, Kasyapa, Kava-
sha, Kutsa, Mudgala, .Narada, Parasara, Prithi, Syavaswa, and
Varna Deva.

The Puranic Gods.

Brahm. In the esoteric teaching of the Brahmans, the absolute
unity of the Divine Nature is recognised under the name of Brahm,
but the doctrine is held only as a philosophical speculation, which
has not the slightest influence on the exoteric religion of the

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

Hindus. In fact, the idea of Brahm is a falsification, in its very-
origin, of the true conception of the Godhead. The Vedic Aryas
were being gradually led, from the simple worship of the sublimer
manifestations of nature, to the recognition of the One True God
and Father of Mankind ; but they were led away from it by the
Brahmanical invention of Brahm. Imperceptibly their first simple
services of prayer and praise became invested, by the officiating
Brahmans of a later time, with a sacrificial and propitiatory cha-
racter ; and if prayer [brahm] could move the gods, prayer \brahm\
it would be easy to argue, was greater than the gods, and Brahm
the god over all gods, and his brahmans, or prayer-bearers, men
over all men. But this conception of Brahm, so far from being
antagonistic to polytheism, was dependent on it,, and favorable
to it ; for in proportion to the multitude of gods would be the
greatness of Brahm and the Brahmans. It is not surprising, there-
fore, that the pure monotheistic dogmas which have become
attached to the idea of Brahm have had no purifying influence
on popular Hinduism. The etymology of the word betrays its
real meaning, and convicts Brahm of having no reference to the
One True God, but of being essentially a sacerdotal invention,
or cabalistic secret, existing only in the ritualistic mysteries
administered by the Brahmans : and so we find the Brahmans in
practice permitting the most puerile superstitions, and the grossest
idolatry, wherever their own authority as mediators between men
and their gods is accepted. In the later philosophy of the
Brahmans, the - One Eternal Mind, the Self-Existing, Incompre-
hensible Spirit," is identified with Brahm. He alone, it is said,
really and absolutely exists, even Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu, being
but maya or illusions of Brahm \ and the final beatitude of the
Hindu consists in being absorbed into Brahm.

Having willed to create the world, he first with a thought
created the waters, and placed in them a seed, and that seed
became an egg, and in that egg he was born himself as Brahma
the Praja]>ali } or forefather of all beings ; and because the spirit

54 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

of Brahm moved on the waters, he is hence named Narayana, or
"moving on the waters." He is also called Iswara, "lord," and
Rarameswara, "supreme lord." But all these names are also
applied to each of the persons of the Hindu triad by their
respective votaries, the Vaishnavas identifying even Narayana
[Plate C, Fig. i] with Vishnu, and the Saivas with Siva. One of
his names is Kala-Hansa. There are no temples raised to Brahm,
and no direct worship is paid to him. It is said that " of him
who is so great there is no image," but the true reason is because
every image, every temple is his, and he is worshipped in every
form, every offering and prayer being indeed himself.

The Greater Gods : Dn Majorum Gentium.

Brahma [Plate C, Fig. 3] is the first person of the Hindu
Tri-murti, "triple-form," or triad [Plate C, Fig. 2]. He is
Brahm* manifested as the active creator of the universe. He
sprang from the mundane egg; and, dividing himself into
male and female, produced the Bramadikas or Rraja-patis,
the "fathers of all creatures," the Manus, and the Rishis.
His male half is called Rurusha, the "first man," and Viraj ;
but sometimes these persons are represented as one the son
of the other, Viraj of Rurusha, or Rurusha of Viraj ; and again
they are represented as sons of Sata-rupa, Brahma's female half.
From Viraj sprang the Manu Swayambhuva [U the son of Sway-
ambhu, the self-existing, i.e. Brahma], and from him the Rrajapatis,
namely, Marichi [chief of the Maruts], Atri, Angiras, Pulastya,
Pulaha, Kratu, Vasishtha, Prachetas or Daksha, Bhrigu, and Narada.
Sometimes Swayambhuva is said to spring directly from Brahma, and
again from the Prajapatis. These Rrajapatis produced the seven
Manus, Swayambhuva, Swarochisha, Auttami, Tamasa, Raivata,
Chakshuha, and Vaivaswata or Satya-vrata, the Manu of the present
age ; to whom seven more are added, Savarna, Daksha- savarna,
Brahma-savarna, Dharma-savarna, Rudra- savarna, Ranchya, and

VEDIC GODS.

[Plate A.

i. Agni. 2. Surya. 3. Chandra or Soma. 4. Indra. 5. Vayu or Pavana.

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

Bhautya. These Manus produced the seven Rishis, said by others
to have been produced direct by Brahma, namely, Gautama,
Bharadwaja, Viswamitra, Jamadagni, Vasishtha, Kasyapa, and
Atri. They are represented in the heavens by the seven stars of
the Great Bear, and are fabled to be married to the seven
Pleiades or Krittikas. The original seven Prajapatis y Ma?ius, and
Rishis refer probably to the same persons, men of traditional fame
among the early Aryas, whom the Brahman s adopted into their
omnivorous pantheon, and made the sons of Brahma.

Although the name of Brahma is the most familiar of all the
gods of the Hindu mythology to Europeans, his worship in India
is almost extinct, if indeed it was ever very popular. There
are few, if any, temples dedicated to him. I know of only the
one on the lake Pushkar [Pokhar] near Ajmir, in Rajputana \ but
his image is placed in the temples of all the other gods.

He is represented as a red or gold-colored man, robed in
white, and seated on his vahan, or vehicle, the hansa, or swan.
He has four heads, each crowned with a sort of tiara, and four
arms. Generally in one hand he holds a portion of the Vedas, in
another a mala or rosary, in the third a lota [water- vessel] contain-
ing Ganges water, and in the fourth a sruva or spoon for lustra-
tions. Sometimes he holds a sceptre in one hand, and his bow
Pari-vata in another : and sometimes he holds nothing in two
of his hands, one of them being held downward, forbidding fear,
and inviting the worshipper's approach, and the other raised in
blessing. Often he is represented as a Brahman at puja or
worship. His paradise is Brahma-pura, on the summit of Mount
Meru, encircled by the sacred Ganges.

Saraswati [Plate C, Fig. 4], his prakriti, saktt, or consort,
is represented as a fair and graceful woman, crowned with the
crescent on her brow, and either seated on a swan, or peacock,
or paddy bird [for the hansa vahan is represented by each of these
three birds in different parts of India], or standing on a lotus. In
one hand, as Vach, the goddess of speech, she holds a written scroll,

56 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

and in the other, as the goddess of music and song, the vina, or
viol, formed of two gourds. Sometimes, as the goddess of the
river from which she takes her name, she holds a padma, or lotus-
flower, in one hand, and a cup of water in the other. When
four-armed, she holds all these emblems in her several hands.

Vishnu [Plates C, D, F, G, H, J], or Hari, in himself and his
several incarnations, is the most popular of all the Hindu deities,
not excepting Siva, and receives unbounded adoration all over
India. The Vaishnavas are divided into many sects, one adoring
Krishna as Vishnu, another Krishna's .rata' Radha, a third Krishna
and Radha conjointly; while others adore Rama Chandra and his
saktiSite, either separately or conjointly. Vishnu is the second
person in the Tri-murti, and personifies the preserving power of
nature. His followers identify him with Narayana [Plate C,
Fig. i] and Parameswara, and represent him as the progenitor
of Siva and Brahma. When the whole earth was covered with
water, Vishnu lay asleep, extended on the serpent Ananta [" the
infinite "], or Sesh, and while he slept, a lotus sprang from his
navel, and from its flower Brahma. The type of Siva is the
yo?ii-linga, and the navel of Vishnu is compared to this yoni-
linga emblem, and exalted over it by the Vaishnavas, and
thus it often becomes almost impossible to distinguish between
Vaishnavas and Saivas. I have seen the forms of Vishnu and
Siva combined in one idol. He is represented as a dark blue
or black man, with four arms, his two right hands holding the
gadha or mace, called Kaumodaki, and a padma or lotus flower,
and his two left the terrible chakra or discus, named Vajra-
nabha, and the sankha or chank-shell, named Panchajanya.
Sometimes he holds only the shell and the discus, or thunder-
bolt, while with his second left hand he forbids fear, and with
his second right hand bestows blessing. He has a bow called
Sarnga, and a sword called Nandarka. He has on his breast
a peculiar curl called Sri-vatsa, and the jewel Kaustubha, and
on his wrist the jewel Syamantaka. He is clothed in yellow j

THE HINDU PANTHEON

hence one of his names, Pitamber; and he has for his vahan of
vehicle the mythical bird, half man, half vulture, Garuda. Often
he is represented seated with his consort on the coils of the Sesha-
Naga, or Ananta. His heaven is Vaikuntha, or Vaibhraja, on
Mount Meru. His avataras £" descents "], or incarnations, are ten.
First, the Matsya, or fish, said to have reference to the universal
deluge from the waters of which he in this form received the
Vedas. Second, the Kurma, or tortoise, in which incarnation he
churned the ocean for amrita, the water of life or immortality.
He placed himself at the bottom of the sea of milk, and made
his back a pivot for Mount Meru, round which the gods and
demons twisted the Naga or snake Vasuki, and, pulling it back-
ward and forward, thus churned the ocean, which delivered
up in succession the fourteen gems, namely, i. Amrita ; 2. The
physician Dhanwantari ; 3. Lakshmi, Vishnu's consort; 4. Sura,
the goddess of wine; 5. Chandra, the moon; 6. Rambha,
the Apsara, the type of womanly loveliness and amiability;
7. Uchchaih-sravas, the eight-headed horse; 8. Kaustubha, the
jewel on Vishnu's breast; 9. Parijata, the celestial tree; 10.
Surabhi, the cow of plenty; n. Airavata, Indra's elephant;
12. Sankha, the chank-shell of victory; 13. Dhanus, a famous
bow; 14. Visha, poison. The third avatar is Varaha, the boar,
which, when the earth was drowned in the ocean, lifted it up
again with its tusks. The fourth, Nara-Sinha, the man-lion ;
and the fifth, Vamana, the dwarf. These are all purely mytho-
logical avatars. The sixth, Parasurama, or "Rama with the
axe," the seventh, Rama Chandra, or "Rama with the bow,"
the eighth, Krishna, and the ninth, Buddha, are legendary and
historical ; and the tenth, Kalki, or Kalkin, is prophetic, being
the incarnation in which Vishnu is to appear at the consummation
of all things, at the close of the Kali Yug, or " black age," seated
on a pale "white horse" with a drawn sword like a blazing
comet in his hand, for the final destruction of the wicked,
and the renovation of creation in perfected purity. When

58 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

Krishna is identified with Vishnu, his place is taken in the
eighth avatar by his brother Bala-Rama, who is armed either
with a hala or plough, or a khetaka, saunanda or club, or a musala
or pestle, after which attributes he is named "Rama with the
ploughshare," or "with the club," or " pestle," as the case may
be. Ballaji, Witthoba, and Naneshwar are all local manifesta-
tions of Vishnu worshipped in Western India. Kandoba, a name
also of Vishnu, is generally applied in Western India to Kandeh
Rao, an avatar of Siva. The temple of Witthoba may be met
with in every village of the Maratha country, that at Pandharpur
being the most celebrated. The tomb of Dyanobha, one of his
disciples, at Alandi near Poona is also a place of great pilgrimage.

Lakshmi [Plates C and D], called also Sri, is Vishnu's
sakti. She is the goddess of good luck and plenty. She is
identified with Rambha as the ideal woman, the Hindu Venus,
and when Vishnu is Krishna or Rama, she is Radha and Rukmeni,
the mistresses of Krishna, or Sita the wife of Rama. She is
held in high honour by Hindu women, who pay her particular
worship on the third day of the light half of the moon called
Rambha-tritiya, as an act auspicious to female beauty. She is
worshipped by filling the corn-measure with wheat or other
grain, and thereon placing flowers. She is represented as a lovely
and benign woman, robed in yellow, holding a lotus in her hand,
and seated either on a lotus, or beside Vishnu. Sometimes, as
is also Vishnu, she is painted all yellow, and has four arms,
and she holds in one of her right hands a necklace, and the pasa
or cord in one of her left. This cord is seen also in the hands
of Varuna and Siva, and is emblematical of the sea, which girdles
the earth. Lakshmi is the mother of Kama-Deva, the god of
love. As Mombadevi she gives her name to Bombay; where she
is also worshipped as Maha-Lakshmi, Kalbadevi, and Gamdevi,
in the different wards of the city called after her by these
names. She is indeed "our Lady of Bombay," in a special
sense, and her temples at Maha-Lakshmi and in the Mombadevi

[Plate B.

VEDIC GODS.

* Kuvera. 3. Kuvera. 4 . Yama. 5 . Varuna. 6. Nirrltu.

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

ward are her two most important fanes in Western India. She
has also temples of note at Tuljapur, Kolhapur, and Nasik, all
in the Maratha country.

Siva [Plates D and E], or Mahadeva, is generally ranked
as the third person of the Tri-murti, but sometimes as the
second. He personifies the destructive force of nature, or
rather its transforming and reproductive power, and thus with
his sakti, Parvati or Devi, appears under both auspicious and
terrible aspects. He is confounded both with Brahma and Vishnu ;
and indeed in any lengthened description of one Hindu deity it
is almost impossible to avoid mixing up its character and attri-
butes with those of another. He is represented under various
forms. Generally he is figured as a white or silver-coloured
man with five heads ; and a third eye deforms each head. He has
four arms, and bears in his two upper hands a mrigu or antelope,
and trisula or trident, or the trisula and pasa or cord, or the
mrigu and shanka or shell \ or the dindimia, damaru, or damru %
a sort of rattling drum, shaped like an hour-glass, and a flaming
bowl. With his third hand he bestows blessings, and with his
fourth forbids fear. But all four hands may hold weapons or other
attributes, an arrow, or a sword, or the bow Ajagava, or the club
Khatwanga. He has the cobra twisted into his hair, and round
his neck and wrists, and wears a necklace of human skulls called
Mund-mala. Each head is surmounted by the crescent moon,
and the Ganges issues from his fifth head. He wears a tiger's
or a deer's skin or an elephant's hide for a cloak, and sits on
the lotus, while his vehan or vehicle is the bull NandL At
the Maha-Pralya, or "grand consummation" of all things, when
the world and all its inhabitants, the saints, and gods, and
Brahma himself, shall pass away, Siva is represented under his
most terrific aspect, in the character of Maha-Kala, "great
time," the destroyer of all things. But his most popular image,
or rather symbol, is the iinga, lingam, or phallus. This is the
symbol, generally coalesced with the yoni, under which he is

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA,

universally adored. In the Siva Purana he is made to say, " I
am omnipresent, but especially in twelve forms and places," the
best known of which are— (i) as Somanatha, "lord of the moon,"
at Somnath Pattan, in Gujarat, the idol that is said to have been
destroyed by Mahmud of Gazni \ (2) as Maha-Kala, at Ujjani,
whence the idol was carried off, in the reign of Altmash,
a.d. 1231, to Delhi, and there destroyed ; (3) as Rameswara, "lord
of Rama," at Rameswaram, and (4) as Visweswara, "lord of all,"
the chief object of worship at Benares. His heaven is on Mount
Kailasa, north of lake Manasa [Manasa-sarovara], where is also
Kuvera's abode. As Kandeh Rao, a manifestation of Siva
worshipped in Western India, he rides on a horse; as Vira
Bhadra, also an especial object of worship in the Maratha
country, he is represented armed with sword, spear, shield,
and bow and arrow, with the sun, moon, and Nandi, and
the linga-yoni around him, and the goat-headed Daksha by
his side.

Daksha was engaged in a sacrifice to which all the gods were
asked but Siva, who, enraged, struck off Daksha's head, but
subsequently restored him to life, and as Daksha's head could not
be found, it was replaced by that of a goat or ram. As Bhairava,
another form under which he is universally worshipped by the
Marathas, he is represented riding in triumph either on Nandi
or on a horse or dog ; or seated in state on the coils of the
Naga or cobra, surrounded by attendants bearing the chamara or
chauri, a kind of wisp made of ivory, or sandal-wood shavings,
or yak's tails, and used as a symbol of royalty and divinity all over
India. As Panchamukhi-Maruti he is worshipped in Western
India, as the Hindu Hercules, and his name is invoked every
time a weight is lifted. Hari-Hareshwar is Siva coalesced with
Vishnu. The twenty-ninth of every month is kept sacred by
all Saivas, and especially by women; but the great annual
festival of Siva, Maha-Siva-ratri, the 6 < great night of Siva," is
held on the 14th Magha [January-February], when, at Bombay,

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

a fair is held at Elephanta. The great fair held on the
island of Bombay, at the sacred village of Walkeshwar, for three
days from the full moon of Kartika [October-November], is
also in honour of Siva. He has several notable shrines in the
Western Presidency, namely, those of Bhuleshwar and Walkesh-
war in Bombay, of Mahabaleshwar at Go-Karn [" cow's ear"], of
Kankeshwar at Alibagh and Malwan, of Taneshwar also at
Malwan, of Hari-Hareshwar at Savarndrug, and of Dhopeshwar
at Rajapur. As Kandoba, the family god of the Marathas, his
chief temple is at Jejuri, in the Poona collectorate.

Parvati [Plates D and E], " the mountaineer," known also as
Devi, the "bright," or the goddess, Kali, the " black," Durga, the
" inaccessible," Vijaya, the "victorious" [i.e. Victoria], Kumari,
the "damsel," Bhavani, and a hundred other names, significant
of her twofold aspect of benignity and terror. In the former
aspect she coalesces with Lakshmi. Thus as Anna Purna,
"full of food," she is worshipped, like Sri, for her power of
giving food; and as Gauri, "the brilliant" ["yellow"], Uma,
"the light," Kamashi, "the wanton-eyed," she coalesces with
Lakshmi as Rambha, the Hindu Venus. But it is in her more
stern and destructive aspects that she is most popular, as the
austere Parvati, and Kumari, and Vindhyavasini, " the dweller
in the Vindhyas " ; where, near Mirzapur, the blood before her
image is never allowed to cease from flowing. As Kumari she
has given her name to Cape Comorin ever since the days of
Pliny. As Kali she gives her name to Calcutta [Kali Gat],
She has a temple also at Saptashringa near Nasik, of some
repute throughout the Maratha country. Her festivals are among
the most celebrated in India ; the principal being the one best
known in Bengal as the Durga Puja, and in Western India
as the Dasara, held annually in the month Aswina [September-
October], She is then worshipped as the slayer of the demon
bull [Minotaur] Mahishasura ; the myth being allegorised as the
triumph of virtue over vice. The Durga Puja is the saturnalia of

6a INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

the autumnal equinox in Bengal, but among the Marathas of
Western India the Dasara is characteristically kept as a great
military pageant, in which the chiefs lead forth their horses in full
panoply of war, and garlanded with flowers. Another great
festival, the Dewali, or "feast of lanterns," held in the new moon
of Kartika [October-November], originated in her honour, and
is kept in her honour in most parts of India; but in Bombay it
seems more peculiarly consecrated to Lakshmi. A festival is
observed also on the new moon of Sravana [July-August] for
the propitiation of the 8 or 8 X 8 = 64 Yoginis or sorceresses,
female demons attending on Parvati as Kali. As Parvati she is
represented as a fair and saintly woman engaged in the worship
of the lingam, or seated by the side of Siva, to whom she
offers amrita from a golden bowl. As Anna Puma she sits
on a water-lily, holding a dish of rice in one hand and a spoon
in the other, and Siva stands before her as a naked mendicant
asking for relief. As the mother of Ganesha she is represented
sitting on a water-lily, robed in red, with the infant Ganesha at
her breast. Sometimes she sits with Ganesha on Nandi behind
Siva, who holds his other son Karttikeya before him. Sometimes
she is giving suck to Krishna, to destroy the poison of a bite
he had received in an encounter with the hydra Kaliya. She is
commonly represented robed in red, seated on her tiger, and
holding in her four blood-stained hands the sword Sri-garbha
[" giver of fortune," literally "womb of fortune"] and shield, and the
irisula of Siva, and zpinda, or ball of rice. As the destroyer of
Mahishasura she is seated on or attended by a lion, and, with the
upraised trisula or trident in her hand, very closely resembles
the figure of Britannia on our copper coins. In the images
worshipped as Kali she is generally represented as a black woman
with four arms, having in one of her hands a scimitar, and in
another the head of a giant which she holds by the hair; a third
is held down inviting approach, and the fourth held up bestowing
blessing. In some of her images as Bhavani and Durga she

[Plate C.

PURANIC GODS.

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

wears two dead bodies for earrings, and a necklace of skulls,
with a girdle of skeletons 3 her hair falls down to her heels,
her wildly protruding eyes are red with blood, and tongue
hangs out to her chin, and her breasts down to her waist ; her
fingers and toes are prolonged like claws J and under her ravening
feet lies the prostrate form of her husband Siva. It is the most
extraordinary figure in all the Hindu pantheon, but is extremely
popular in Eastern Bengal ; and the oldest of the so-called
" bronzes" found in India are generally of Parvati in this form
of grotesque horror. As Ardha-Nari, "half-woman," she is
represented as Siva and Parvati coalesced, the right half being
Siva and the left Parvati. This figure holds the dindima, pasa,
trisula, and a sword in its four hands, and is attended both
by NandixcA a tiger, while from its head issues the sacred Ganges.
As Durga her weapons are altogether twelve, and each are
separately invoked at her worship in the following form :

1. Om to the khadga [sword], the sharp-edged chastiser, the
invincible, the giver of fortune \sri-garbha\ the defender of the
faith, thee I adore, O Lord [Isa\ !

2. Om to the trisula [trident], benefactor of earth, mid-air,
and heaven [" tri-regionis benefactor"], the destroyer of our
enemies, thee I adore, O Lord !

3. Om to the chakra [discus or thunderoolt], thou pervadest
all nature, thou art Vishnu, thou art also Devi, O beautiful-
shaped discus, thee I adore, O Lord !

4. Om to the tir [arrow], the chief of all weapons, the
subduer of the demoniac forces from all quarters, thee I adore,
O Lord !

5. Om to the sakti [javelin], weapon of the gods, and
especially of Karttikeya, thee I adore, O Lord !

6. Om to the khitaka [club], the destroyer of our enemies,
held in Devi's hand, thee I adore, O Lord !

7. Om to the dhanus [bow], propeller of the chief of weapons,
destroyer of our enemies, defend us and bless us, O Lord !

64 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

8. Om to the pasa [noose], serpentine, venomous, unbearable
to thine enemies, defend us and bless us, O Lord !

9. Om to the ankas [goad], lord of the elephant, for the
defence of the world art thou placed in Parvati's hand, defend
us and bless us, O Lord !

10. Om to the sipar [shield], oppose thy glories to the
enemy in battle, and defend us, thy servants, and bless us,
O Lord !

11. Om to the ganta [bell], striking terror by thy world-wide
sound into our enemies, drive out from us all our iniquities,
defend us and bless us, O Lord !

12. Om to the parasu [axe], the annihilator, victorious over
all enemies, defend us and bless us, O Lord !

Siva, and Parvati in her more terrible forms, and all their
demon train, are remains of the fetish religion of the aborigines
of India, and obviously intruders in the Hindu system.

The terrible twelve years' famine which wasted the Dakhan
from 1396 to 1408, in the midst of which came Tamerlane and
laid Hindustan waste, is personified by the natives as Durga Devi.

The Eight Vedic "Dii Selecti."

Indra [Plate A, Fig. 4], in the Puranic mythology, takes,
after the Tri-mnrti, the first place before all other gods. He is
worshipped at the beginning of every festival as one of the
ten guardian deities of the world, and regent of the east quarter ;
and his annual festival, on the 14th of the lunar month Bhadra
[August-September], is celebrated with the greatest rejoicing
all over Bengal. Each person must keep his feast every year for
fourteen years consecutively, and present him on each occasion with
fourteen different fruits, fourteen kinds of cake, &c, as the giver
of rain, and bestower of harvests \ and for the purpose of
procuring after death a residence in Indra's heaven, which is
Swarga, on Mount Meru, the abode of the lesser gods, and of

THE HINDU PANTHEON. 65

beatified men. His celestial city is called Amaravati, and his
garden Nandana stretches far out along one of the northward
spurs of Mount Meru. The most remarkable celebration
of Indra is in the unsectarian festival known in the Madras
Presidency as the Pongol [i.e. "boiling"], which corresponds
in date with one of the festivals of Surya, known in other parts
of India as Makar Sankranti. It is held on the day the sun
enters the sign of the Makara [the vahan, or vehicle of Varuna,
and ensign of Kama], on the first day of the month Magha
[January-February], and is the greatest festival of the year in
Southern India. It is admirably described by Mr. Charles E.
Gover in vol. v. of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
of England, new series, 1871. That the festival is primitive is
shewn by the fact that the Vedic deities are alone worshipped.
Indra is the presiding deity, and Agni the main object of
worship. The Brahmans of the Madras Presidency have con-
stantly made efforts to corrupt the ritual, and introduce Puranic
deities. Krishna is always declared by the Brahmans to be the
Pongol god, but the rustic conservatism of the cultivators [pagans]
has been able to resist their influence, and everywhere in Southern
India Indra remains the king of the New Year festivities. Mr.
Gover describes it as an annual house-warming, or ingathering of
kith and kin, and harvest home combined ; and as the Christmas
and Whitsuntide of Europe made into one. Bonfires are lighted
everywhere on the previous night, and the people gather from far
and near around them, spending the time in laughing, talking,
singing, and jumping through the flames, while they watch for the
rising of the sun : and the moment it appears above the horizon the
Pongol begins. The first day is called the Indra Pongol, or Bhogi-
Pongol, i.e. "rejoicing-boiling." .The second day is the great
day, and is called the Surya and Agni Pongol. This is the day
for visiting friends, and the first salutation on entering a house
is, "Has the milk boiled [pongol]}" to which the answer is,
"Yes, it has boiled [pongol} ;" and from this the festival takes

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

its name. The third day is the Pongol of cows, and altogether
the festival lasts seven days. Indra is worshipped as the rain
which caused the rice to spring, and Surya and Agni, as
the sun which ripened the new grain in the ear. Comfits
are exchanged between all who meet, and enemies make up
past quarrels, while creditors let off their debtors. No Brahman
is ever present, and the purohita, or " man put forward," i.e. the
family priest, is not a Brahman, but the father of the house,
or the eldest son, as in Vedic times. In Bombay, the festival,
which seems to be there connected more directly with Surya,
the sun, and Varuna, the sea, than with Indra, has been com-
pletely Brahmanised, but still remains one of the simplest and
most beautiful celebrations in the Hindu calendar. At the
moment the sun enters the sign of the Makara, the people
go down to the sea, accompanied by the Brahmans, to bathe.
There they rub their bodies with sesamum seed, the favorite
seed of the sun [for the clear light the expressed oil [" Open
Sesame "] gives], and wash themselves in the manner directed
by the Brahmans. Then returning home, they present the
Brahmans each with a cup of bell metal filled with sesamum
seed and money ; in return the Brahmans give them their bene-
diction, pouring red-colored rice on their heads. Then all
begin rejoicing; visiting each other, and feasting together; and
wherever people meet, they put comfits of sesamum seed into
each other's hands, saying, "Take, eat of these comfits of
sesamum seed, and think of me kindly throughout the coming
year." Even in Bombay, it is worthy of notice that through-
out this day praise and prayer are offered only to the sun,
Surya, and to no other god. Again, on the celebration of
the Hindu New Year's Day, on the ist Chaitra [March-
April], the standard of Indra is set up in front of every house
in Bombay. It must be set up before every house, for on
this day it is raised in his honour by the gods; and the will
of the gods should be done on earth even as it is in heaven ;

PURANIC GODS.

[Plate D.

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

(>7

and so on this day the standard of Indra waves In every wind
of the firmament over all India. Indra is represented as a
white man, holding the thunderbolt \yajrd\ in his right hand,
and riding on a white elephant with four trunks, named
Airavati [" fine elephant "]. It is the rain-cloud. Indra's
wife, Indrani, is mentioned in the Rig- Veda.

Surya [Plate A, Fig. 2], the sun, is identical with Savitri,
Ravi, and Aditya, although these personifications are often
distinguished from one another. He is the regent or guardian
of the south-west quarter. He is generally represented as a
ruddy man, seated on a lotus in a chariot drawn by seven
horses, or a seven- headed horse, with the legless Aruna
["rosy," "red"] for his charioteer. He is surrounded by a
halo of glorious light. In two hands he holds a water-lily;
with the third he is forbidding fear, and with the fourth
bestowing blessing. He is still widely worshipped in India,
his sectaries being known as Sauras. He is also worshipped
daily by the Brahman s, and especially on Sunday, which is
called Aditwar or Raviwar after him ; at the annual festival of
the Makar Sankranti ; and on his great day, the Rathasaptami y
kept in the month of Magha [January-February]. He has
a temple dedicated to him at Baroda, in Gujarat, where he
is known as Surya Narayana.

Agni [Plate A, Fig. 1] is worshipped all over India for three
days from the full moon of the month of Magha, when danger
from fire is considerable ; his image on these days being often
addressed before that of Brahma. He is the guardian of the south-
east quarter. He is represented as a ruddy, handsome young
man, with golden hair, riding on a blue ram, or blue he-goat. In
his right hand he holds a spear, while his left rests by his side.
He wears the Brahmanical zenaar, fioita, or sacred cord, and a
necklace of the seeds of the Elaocarpus Ganitrus, Sometimes
he has three heads, and seven arms, and three legs, said [the
legs] to be symbolical of the sun's creative heat, preserving

f 2

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

light, and destroying fire, and [the arms] of the seven days of
the week over which the sun rules. He thus in these Puranic
representations coalesces with Surya. Mr. Gover observes that
none of these images or pictures of Indra, Surya, and Agni are
known in the Pongol festival, " any more than they were at the
time when the hymns of the Rig- Veda were composed.'' In
fact, at the Pongol, Indra, Surya, and Agni are still worshipped
only in the form of the elements. There is a very interesting
temple of Agni at Bombay, near the English burying-ground, in
which all the sacrificial utensils are of wood.

Vayu, or Pavana [Plates A, Fig. 5, and B, Fig. 1], the god of
the winds and messenger of the gods, the regent also of the north-
west quarter, is represented as a white man, clothed in blue, sitting
on an antelope [which is associated also with Soma or Chandra],
bearing an arrow in one hand, and a flag in the other. His
image is never seen, but pictures of him occur in the illustrations
of the Ramayana. He is often painted with his son Hanuman
in his arms.

Varuna [Plate B, Fig. 5] is, in the Puranic mythology, the
god of the waters, and of the west quarter. His image is rarely
seen, but he is worshipped daily as one of the guardian deities
of the earth, and by those who farm the lakes in Bengal, and in
times of drought and famine. In paintings he is represented as a
white man seated on the sea-monster Makara [which is also the
ensign of Kama], and holding in one hand a pasa, emblematical
of the sea which girdles the earth, and in the other an umbrella,
impenetrable to water, formed of a cobra's head. His favorite
resort is Pushpagiri. The Makara is obviously a mythical croco-
dile. The annual festival of Varuna in Bombay is on the 15th
Sravana [July- August], known to Anglo-Indians as " Cocoanut
Day." The rainy season is then supposed to be at an end
and the Indian Ocean again open to commerce, when the whole
population in its joy goes down to the Esplanade, to cast
cocoanuts into the sea in honour of Varuna.

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

Yama [Plate B, Fig. 4] is held in great terror by the
Hindus, as the god of death and judgment, and is represented
as a green or blue man, clothed in yellow or red, and seated on a
blue buffalo. He is guardian of the south quarter ; and an annual
festival is held in his honour on the 2nd Kartika [October-
November]. His sister is Yamuni.

Kuvera [Plate B, Figs. 2 and 3] is the chief of the demons
of the lower world, but his own abode is in the grove of Chaitra-
ratha, on Mandara, one of the spurs of Meru. But some place
it on Mount Kailasa, and others identify Mandara with the
mountain so named in Bhagaipur, which is held sacred. He is
the regent of the north, and of all the treasures of the earth,
and of the nine particular treasures or nidhis, the nature of
which is not known. As the god of wealth he is worshipped
in Bombay with Lakshmi during the Diwah\ or Feast of
Lanterns. He is represented as a white man deformed in his
legs, either seated on the self-moving aerial chariot, called
Pushpaka, which was given to him by Brahma, and which was
carried off by Ravana, and recovered by Rama ; or riding on
a white horse. His wife is Kauveri.

Soma [Plate A, Fig. 5], the last of the eight Vedic gods
holding the first rank in the Hindu Pantheon, and regent of
the north-east quarter, has his proper position after Ganesa and
Karttikeya, the sons of Siva, who have next to be described ; but
here will be the most convenient place in which to insert the
following table, chiefly taken from Dubois' Description of the
People of India, 18 17, giving a synoptical view cf the eight
Vedic gods who, according to the later mythology, preside over
the four cardinal and four intermediate points of the compass.

7 o

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

Table of the Regents of the Eight Quarters of the
World.

Names of
the Gods.

E. Indra

2. Agni

S.E.

3. Yama

4. Surya

S.W.

5. Varuna

6. Vayu or
. Pavana

| N.W.

7. Kuvera

8. Soma

N.E.

Points which
they guard.

Their Vahans, or Vehicles

White Elephant.
Blue Ram or blue

he-Goat.
Blue Buffalo.
Chariot.
The Makara

[Crocodile].

White Antelope.

Aerial Car, or

White Horse.
White Antelope.

Attributes.

Vajra.

Sikhi.

Danda.
Padma.

Pasa.

Dwaja.

Khadga.
Sankra.

Colour of
Clothing.

Red.

Violet.

Oransfe.
Bright Yellow.

White.

Blue or Indigo.

Rose colour.
White.

For No. 4 Dubois substitutes Nirritu, one of the Rudras, a
personification of death, robed in deep yellow, and borne pick-
a-back by a man ; and for No. 8, Siva, as Isana. Sometimes
Prithivi, the earth, fills this place.

The two Sons of Siva.

Ganesa, or Ganapati [Plate I, Fig. 5], that is, lord [isa
or pati\ of the Ganas or troops of inferior deities, especially
those attendant on Siva; called also in Madras Fuliar, or the
belly-god ; the Hindu god of wisdom, the remover of difficulties,
the Lar of the public ways, is the son of Siva and Parvati.
His image stands in every house, and is painted on every Hindu
schoolboy's slate, and he is invoked at the outset of every
undertaking. His festival is celebrated on the third day of
the month Bhadra [August-September], the anniversary of his
birth, with unbounded fun in Bombay; but in Bengal no public
festival is held in his honour. There is a celebrated temple to
him at Bholeshwar, in the town of Bombay, and another at Pula,
in the Ratnagiri collectorate. He is represented in the form of

PURANIC GODS.

[Plate E.

THE HINDU PANTHEON. ?I

hS H H Y ' ° r ° n ^ WWch ^ accompanies
him. He has only one tusk, having ] 0 st the other in an
enco unt e r with Parasurama. He has four hands, in which he
holds any four of the milder attributes of Siva. It appears that

[Saturn] to look at him, forgetful of the effect of his glance
Sam looked and the child's head was charred to ashes, when his
mother took off an elephant's and put it on hin, Anot,
story 1S that Sl va in a fury cut the boy's head off, and then in
h,s remorse, stuck on the head of an elephant that was
passing.

tiM^T'^^' 01 " tr °° PS ° f ddtieS '" ° f Which he is

(1) The 12 Adityas.

(2) The 10 Viswa-devas ["all the gods"].

(3) The 8 Vasus.

(4) The 1 2 or 30 Tushitas, identical with the Adityas, multi-

plied apparently to 30 to make up the days of the
month.

(5) The 49 Anilas, or "winds."

(6) The 220 or 236 Maharajikas.

(7) The „ or r 7 Sadhyas, or personified rites and prayers of

the Vedas.

(8) The n Rudras.

They all dwell together in Ganaparata, on Monnt Kailasa, the
Paradise of Siva. *

Karttikeya [Plate J, Fig. ,J identical with Mangala and
Subrahmanya, the Hindu god of war, and regent of the planet
Mars, the son of Siva or Rudra, without the co-operation of a
mother He takes his name from his nurses, the seven Krittikas,
or Pleiades. He is a yellow man [but, as Mars, he is painted red]

72 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

and rides on a peacock, holding in his left hand an arrow, and
in his right a bow. His chief temple in the Bombay Presidency
is at Dharwar.

These thirteen gods head the roll of the greater celestial gods.

The "Patrii Penates" and "Lares domestici et
familiares."

Next in order are the Prajapatis, Manus, and Rishis, already
named in the introductory paragraph to the present section on the
Puranic gods, and the Pitris, or ghosts of ancestral forefathers.

"The Hosts of Heaven. "

These are followed by the "hosts of heaven," the nine
regents of the planets and eclipses.

Ravi, identical with Surya and Aditya, the regent of the
Sun, who gives his name to the first day of the week, Raviwar,
or Aditwar, our Sunday, the French Dimanche.

Soma, or Chandra, the regent of the Moon, who gives his
name to Monday, Somwar, the French Lundi. He is represented
as a white man sitting on a water-lily, or in a chariot drawn by
an antelope, or by ten horses, of the whiteness of jasmine.

Mangala, identical with Karttikeya, the regent of the planet
Mars, who gives his name to Tuesday, Mangalwar, the French
Mardi. As Mars, he is painted red.

Budha, the regent of Mercury, the reputed author of a
hymn in the Rig- Veda, who gives his name to Wednesday,
Budhwar, the French Mercredi. He is represented robed in
yellow, and sitting on a lion.

Brihaspati [the personification of the action of prayer in
the Vedas], the regent of Jupiter, who gives his name to
Thursday, Brihaspatwar, the French Jeudi : called also Guru-
var, Brihaspati, or Brahmanaspati, being the prototype of the

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

priestly guru, or religious teacher. He is represented as a yellow
man, seated on a water-lily.

Sukra, the regent of the planet Venus, who gives his name
to Friday, Sukrawar, the French Vendredi. He is represented
as a white man seated on a water-lily.

Sani, the regent of Saturn, who gives his name to Saturday,
Saiiiwar or Sanichar, the French Samedi. He is represented as
a black man, robed in black, and seated on a vulture.

Rahu is the ascending node in an eclipse, and is represented
by the head of Ketu, placed on a cushion : or he is represented
seated, whole, on a lion.

Ketu is the descending node in an eclipse, and is represented
by the headless trunk of Rahu riding on a vulture.

Graha [" grabbed"] is the eclipse itself.

The ninety-seven Nakshatras, or lunar mansions, are personi-
fied as the daughters of Daksha, one of the Prajapatis. Dhruva
is the Pole- star, and the seven Krittikas are the Pleiades.

The Lesser Gods, "Dii Minorum •Gentium," and Deified
Heroes, "Dii indigetes."
Krishna [« black,"— Plate H, Figs. 4 and 5] is the most cele-
brated national hero in the Hindu pantheon, and the mythical scenes
and incidents of his life appear everywhere in Indian art. He was
born at Mathura, the modern Muttra ; his mother being Devaki
and his reputed father Vasudeva, of the Yadava race, and brother
of Kunti, the wife of Pandu: but Vishnu is the mythical father
of both Krishna and his brother Balarama. At the time of his
birth, Kansa, Raja of the Bhojas, ruled in Mathura; and it having
been foretold to him that a son of Devaki, his brother's daughter,
should take his kingdom from him, he kept his cousin carefully
guarded in his own palace, and caused all the children she
bore to be put to death. In this way six were destroyed, but the
seventh child was miraculously preserved by being changed before
its birth to Vasudeva's second wife Rohini, of whom it was in due

74 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

time born. This child was Balarama. Devaki's eighth son was
born at night, and was very dark, whence he was called Krishna,
and had on his breast a curl of hair, the peculiar mark of
Krishna, called Sri-vatsa. The gods at once interposed to save
the divine child, and while the guards were overpowered with
sleep, Vasudeva carried it off to Nanda, the cowherd, whose wife,
Yasoda, had on that very night been delivered of a female child \
and Vasudeva secretly changed the infants, and brought back
the daughter of Yasoda to Devaki. Kansa, on discovering the
cheat, ordered that every male infant in and about Mathura should
be put to death. Nanda, alarmed, hid himself with the young
Krishna and his elder brother Balarama in Gokula, a pastoral
district on the banks of the Yamuna near Mathura. It was
while he lived in Gokula that Krishna played so many of his
wild pranks. On one occasion while the gopis, or milkmaids,
were bathing, he took away their clothes and climbed up into a
tree with them, and remained there until they came to him naked
to beg their return. It was at this time also that he slew the
great serpent Kaliya, which infested the banks of the Jumna at
Bandrabund. He persuaded Nanda, the cowherd, to give up the
worship of Indra, and to worship the mountain of Govardhana,
which sheltered them and their cattle. Indra, enraged, poured
down rain on them, but Krishna lifted up the mountain of
Govardhana and held it over them upon his finger as a shelter
for seven days. As he grew up a handsome youth, the gopis
all became enamoured of him. He spent most of his time in
sporting with them, and married seven or eight of them, but
his first and favorite wife was Radha. His chief pastime' was
the circular dance called rasa-mandala [mandate, a circuit,
as in Coromandel], in which he and Radha formed the centre,
while the gop's and gopias [cowherds] danced round them.
Kansa, always seeking his life, sent the demon Arishta in the form
of a bull, and the demon Kesin in the form of a horse, to destroy
him, but in vain. Then he invited Krishna to Mathura to some

PURANIC GODS.
Avatars of Vishnu.

[Plate F.

THE HINDU PANTHEON. 75

public games, hoping in this way to bring about his death,
but Krishna slew him in a boxing-match. Afterwards Krishna
went down to the infernal regions, and brought back his
six brothers whom Kansa had killed ; and then he killed the
demon Panchajanya that lived in a chank shell, and ever
afterwards used this shell as a war trumpet. Kansa had married
two daughters of Jarasandha, king of Magadha [Oudh], and this
king, on hearing of Kansa's death, marched against Krishna, but
was defeated. Then a new enemy named Kalayavana [literally
' 'black stranger 7 '] attacked Krishna, who, feeling his position
between Kala Yavan and Jarasandha precarious, retired to
Dwaraka, on the coast of Gujarat Here he carried off Rukmini,
the betrothed of Sisu-pala : and also recovered the famous jewel
Syamantaka, which Jambavat, the king of the bears, had taken
from a lion, which had killed a brother of Satrajita's who had
charge of the jewel.

How he assisted the Pandavas in the great war of Bharata
has already been told. The popularity of this national legend
enabled the Brahmans to extend the worship of Krishna all over
India, and it is now established everywhere, except where the
worship of Rama prevails. It seems to have passed over the
whole peninsula in an unbroken wave, which swept all before
it; and it is illustrated by almost everything on which one
looks in India. The anniversary of his birth is kept on the
8th Sravana [July-August], when the image of the infant
Krishna is adorned with sacred basil; and the Hull festival,
the great saturnalia of the vernal equinox in India, which begins
at the new moon and continues to the full moon of Phalgana
[February-March], is also now celebrated in his honour,
and is the most popular holiday in Western India. It probably
had its origin in the most primitive Aryan times. The ceremonies
consist in enacting Krishna's sports with the gopis, which often
degenerate into great licentiousness. He is represented in many
ways. As Gopala, or Govinda, he is a child, resting on one knee,

76 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

with his right hand extended, begging for sweetmeats. At a later
period of life he is represented either trampling on the head of
the great serpent Kaliya or playing on a flute. The representa-
tions of him in painting and sculpture, dancing with the gopis, or
raising the mountain of Govardhana, or in connexion with the
Pandavas, are endless. In the Madras Presidency it would appear
to be always Krishna who is represented under the form of Vishnu.
His most famous form is as Jagan-natha, Lord of the World,
under which he is worshipped, in association with his brother
Balarama, and his sister Subhadra, at Puri, near Cuttack, in Orissa.
This image has no legs and only stumps for arms, and the head
is very large. Krishna, it will be remembered, was accidentally
killed at Dwaraka : and the story at Puri is that some pious
person collected his bones, and put them in a box, in which
they remained until King Indrayumna was directed by Vishnu to
make an image of Jagan-natha, and put Krishna's bones into its
belly. Viswakarma, the architect of the gods, undertook to do
this, on condition that he should be left undisturbed until the
completion of the work. But the king after fifteen days, losing
all patience, went to see how he was getting on, when Viswa-
karma at once went off in a huff, leaving Jagan-natha without hands
or feet. Such is the explanation given by the Brahmans of this
hideous idol. The true one is General Cunningham's, who has
proved that the image has been concocted of the trisula of a
Buddhist tope, which was erected at Puri b.c. 250. Before
this monstrous shrine all distinctions of caste are forgotten, and
even a Christian may sit down and eat with a Brahman. In his
work on Orissa, Dr. W. W. Hunter says that at the " Sacrament
of the Holy Food " he has seen a Puri priest receive his food
from a Christian's hand. This rite is evidently also a survival
of Buddhism. It is remarkable that at the shrine of Vyankoba,
an obscure form of Siva, at Pandharpur, in the Southern Maratha
country, caste is also in abeyance, all men being deemed equal
in its presence. Food is daily sent as a gift from the god to

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

persons in all parts of the surrounding country, and the proudest
Brahmans gladly will accept and partake of it from the hands
of the Sudra, or Mahar, who is usually its bearer. There are
two great annual festivals in honour of Jagan-natha, namely, the
Suan-yatra in the month Jyestha [May-June], and the Rath-
yatra in the following month of Asarha [June-July]. They
are held everywhere, but at Puri they are attended by pilgrims
from every part of India, so many as 200,000 often being present.
All the ground is holy within twenty miles of the pagoda, and
the establishment of priests amounts to 3,000. The "Sacra-
ment of the Holy Food " is celebrated three times a day, and
during its administration the temple nautch girls [Devadasi] dance
before the image. The Suan-yatra is a bathing festival. At the
Eath-yatra, the temple car, containing the images of Krishna,
Balarama, and Subhadra, is drawn by the devotees through the
town, when many cast themselves beneath its ponderous wheels
and are crushed to death. Haridwara or Hurdwar, " the Gate
of Hari," near where the Ganges breaks through the Himalayas,
is a great centre of the worship of Krishna as an incarnation
of Vishnu, unoler his name of Hari. Hurihud is also called
after him. Harihar would seem to be sacred to both Krishna as
Hari and Siva as Hara. At Dwaraka [Dwarka], in Kathiwar,
Krishna, in his form of Dwarkanatha, and his eight wives have
each separate temples, of great fame throughout all India, and
most Hindus who visit them are branded with the attributes of
Vishnu, the sankha [shell], chakra [wheel], gadha [mace], and
padma [lotus-flower], in token of their visit to the place.

Balarama [Plate G, Fig. 3] is always represented as a white
man.

Rama-chandra [Plates G, Fig. 1, and I, Fig. 2], the husband
of Sita, the hero of the Ramayana, is always known in the scenes
in which he appears by his bow and arrow. His worship is pre-
dominant throughout Oude, and there are temples to him all over
India. The anniversary of his birth is everywhere celebrated

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

from the ist to 9th Chaitra [March- April], by the public reading
of the Ramayana. Several cities are called Rampura after him.
He gives his name to Rama-giri, the "hill of Rama," a short
distance to the north of Nagpur, and to Rama-situ, "Rama's
bridge," the line of rocks between India and Ceylon; and
Rameswaram, where he is said to have set up one of the twelve
great lingams to Iswara, the "lord" Siva. \ The Zemindar of
Ramnad still bears the title of 'Situ-Pati, or " keeper of the
bridge," i.e. of Rama's bridge. The salutation of two Hindus
meeting each other is "Ram Ram," but whether it has any con-
nexion with Rama-chandra, as it is sometimes said, is doubtful.
He has a temple celebrated throughout Western India at Pancha-
wati [i.e. "five-banyans," just as we have Nine-Elms], near
Nasik ; where it was that he killed the golden deer on his way
to Lanka. It is overshadowed by five magnificent banyan-trees.

The "Dii Semones." 1

Viswakarma, the omnificent, the architect of the gods, is little
more than a name in the popular mythology of India.

Kama, or Kama-deva [Plate I, Fig. 6], the god of love, the son
of Lakshmi, is the Indian Cupid. He is represented, like Cupid,
as a young boy with wings, and a bow and arrow ; and he rides
either on the Makara or a red parrot or lory. When the latter
is his vahan, he bears the Makara as his ensign. His wife is
Rati, surnamed Subhangi, the " fair-limbed," the Hindu Venus.

Ananda is happiness, and

Vasanta is the spring personified.

There are a number of other personifications belonging to the
order of the lesser gods, which are little more than appellatives,
and seldom met with except in poetry or religious writings; such
t&Sanjna, conscience, Papa-purusha, " man of sin," the personi-
fications of human wickedness ; A-dharma [" unrighteousness "],

1 Semones = semi-homines. Cf. Livy, viii. 20: "Minores diis, et majores
hominibus."

[Plate G.

PURANIC GODS.
Avatars of Vishnu — continued.

1. The Seventh Avatar of Vishnu as Rama with the Bow.

2. The Eighth Avatar of Vishnu as Krishna.

3. Rama with the ploughshare, who is the Eighth Avatar when Krishna is Vishnu.

4. The Ninth Avatar of Vishnu as Buddha. 5. The Tenth Avatar of Vishnu as Kalki.

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

vice, Yajna, " sacrifice," represented as the husband of JDakshina,
the personification of the " honorarium v paid to Brahmans for the
performance of a sacrifice ; Nidra, sleep ; the fifty personifi-
cations of the fifty letters of the alphabet ; and others, to
enumerate which might indeed raise the number of the Hindu
gods to the Puranic boast of 330,000,000. A much more im-
portant class of the lesser gods are the fabulous animals of which
Hanuman, Garuda, and Sesha are the types.

Hanuman [Plate I, Fig. 3], the monkey-god, the son of Vayu
Pavana, was the leader of the army which Sugriva, the monkey-
king of Kishkindhya, sent to the assistance of Rama against
Ravana, the demon-king of Lanka [Ceylon], and the Rakshasas.
He jumped from India to Ceylon at a bound. Surasa, a Rak-
shasi, mother of the Nagas [literally " snakes," the Scythic wor-
shippers of the cobra], opened her mouth to swallow him bodily,
but he swelled himself out wider than ever she could stretch her
mouth, till it was a hundred leagues wide from ear to ear. Then
Hanuman, suddenly shrinking himself to the size of his thumb,
lept into her jaws, and out through her ear. These exploits of his
are the delight of the nurseries of all India. He is always known
by his ape's face and tail. Sarabha was another of Rama's
monkey allies. Jambavat, the king of the bears, was also an ally
of Rama's, and always acted the part of a sage counsellor. Like
Hanuman, he is evidently a mythical representative of tribes
who assisted the Brahmanical Hindus in the conquest of Southern
India and Ceylon. He is the same as the bear with whom Krishna
had his twenty-one days' fight for the recovery of the famous gem
Syamantaka, which was given to the sun by Satrajita. He is at
once recognised in illustrations of the stories of the Ramayana.

Kamadenhii, called also Surab/u, is the cow of plenty, which
grants all desires, and was produced at the churning of the ocean
by Vishnu.

Uchchaih-sravas is the eight-headed king of horses, produced
at the churning of the ocean.

So INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

Kalki y or Kalkin, is the great white horse of Vishnu's coming
[ioth] incarnation, which will stamp with its right fore leg as the
sign of the end of all things. In his first, second, third, and
fourth avatars Vishnu also appears respectively as a fish [Matsya],
tortoise \Kurma\ boar \Varaha\ and man-lion [Nara-Sinha].

Tarkshya is the winged horse, personifying the sun. The
winged horse of the sculptures of Buddha-Gaya [Plate K, Fig. 6]
may possibly be Tarkshya, as the Kinnaras are also represented,
but it is probably of foreign origin [Pegasus].

The Kinnaras are mythical beings, with the form of a man and
head of a horse, which belong to another order of the Puranic
gods. The Centaurs are represented in the sculptures of Buddha
Gaya [Plate K, Fig. 5], but are obviously exotic forms.

Sarania is the dog of Indra, and the Sarameyas, her offspring,
the watch-dogs of Yama. Cerbura [Plate K, Fig. 2] is the
three-headed infernal dog of the Krishna legends.

The Vahans, or Vehicles of the different Gods.

The Bull, Nandi, the vehicle of Siva and Parvati.
The Tiger and Lion, also vehicles of Parvati, as Kali and
Durga.

The Dog and Horse, the vehicles of Siva as Bhairava ; the
Horse also of Kuvera.

The Ram, or he-Goat, the vehicle of Agni.

The Antelope, the vehicle of Vayu, or Pavana, and Chandra.

The Buffalo, the vehicle of Yama.

The Elephant Airavata, the vehicle of Indra. Sometimes
all the guardians of the eight quarters of the compass are
represented on elephants.

Arva, one of the horses of the moon, a mythical being half
horse and half bird like Tarkshya, the vehicle of the Daityas or
Titans.

Garuda [Plate J, Fig. 2], the king of the birds, the mythical

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

being foreshadowed by Arva and Tarkshya, half man and half
eagle or vulture, the vehicle of Vishnu, and repesented as a great
enemy of the Nagas. He was uncle of the pious vulture Jatyus,
and connected with Sampati, and other fabulous birds included
in the class named Suparnas [" five-winged "]. Chakora is a
fabulous bird which lives on the beams of the moon. The bird
like a Harpy represented on the sculptures of Buddha Gaya
[Plate K, Fig. 3] is probably of foreign origin.
The Vulture, the vehicle of Sani.

The Swan or Goose, Hansa, the vehicle of Saraswati and
Brahma. Sometimes Saraswati is represented on a white Pea-
cock, and sometimes on a Paddy-bird. The Peacock on which
Karthkeya sometimes rides is called Paravani [Pavona].

The Parrot, the usual vehicle of Kama-deva.

The Makara or yalampa, the mythical sea-monster, the vehicle
of Varuna and sometimes of Kama-deva. When the latter rides
on a Parrot, he bears the Makara as his standard. Very learned
discussions have been held as to the nature of the Makara,
but it is obviously a crocodile, tricked out with the tail of a fish,
and the head and jaws of anything.

The Serpent Sesha-Naga, called also Ananta, the Infinite, the
king of the Nagas or serpents, and lord of the infernal regions,
called Patala, may also be regarded as a vehicle of Vishnu, but
more properly belongs to the class of demons. He is sometimes
held to be identical with, and sometimes distinct from, Vasuki,
the snake with which Krishna churned the ocean. The Nagm's,
or female Nagas, are represented with the body of a woman
ending in the tail of a snake [Plate J, Fig. 3], as sin is represented
by Milton. Timin is the veritable sea-serpent. Timin-gila, the
" swallower of Timin," is yet larger, and Timin-gila-gila still larger,
and so on, just as the " sea-serpent " grows from year to year
in the columns of our newspapers. It is also called Samudraru,
"Lord of the Sea" [" Zamorin "].

Akapara is the Tortoise on which the earth rests.

82 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

Celestial Attendants on the Gods.

The celestial attendants on the gods are classed in ganas or
troops. The Apsarases [Plate J, Fig. 5], the personifications of
vapour in the Vedas, are, in the Puranas, the ballet girls, and
" sisters of mercy 99 of the Swarga, the Paradise of Indra \ beautiful
fairy-like beings, whose charms are

" The common treasure of the host of Heaven,"

Rambha and Urvasi being the most celebrated of them. The
Gandharvas, " the heavenly Gardharvas " of the Vedas, are the
celestial choristers of Swarga, whose leader is Narada. They
are said to have a great partiality for women, and a mystic power
over them. They are always associated with the Apsarases.

The Kinnaras are the minstrels of Kuvera's paradise on Mount
Kailasa, which is also Siva's heaven. They have the heads of
horses. The Yakshas are inoffensive attendants of Kuvera, and
the Guhyakas ["hidden beings"], the guardians of his treasures.
The Siddhas are a class of spirits of great purity and holiness,
who are not, strictly speaking, companions of the god, as they
dwell apart, in mid-air, between earth and heaven.

The Infernal Attendants on the Gods.
The chief inferior infernal deities are :

Nirritu [" death," Plate B, Fig. 6], one of the Rudras, also
described as a Rakshasa, and often named, in the place of Surya,
as the guardian of the south-west quarter. He is robed in deep
yellow, and his vehicle is a man. He is referred to in the Rig-
Veda as worshipped by the "spider-like Danavas," the "black
Asuras," "black Dasyus," and other enemies of "'the white-
complexioned sons of Indra."

The Rakshasas, goblins or evil spirits, are a mythical type of

PURANIC GODS

[Plate H.

x. Vishnu as Ballaji and wife.
3. Vishnu as Naneshwar.

2. Vishnu as Witthoba and wife
4. Krishna. 5. Krishna.

THE HINDU PANTHEON. 83

the rude races of India subdued by the Aryas. Ravana [Plate I,
Fig. 4], the demon king of Lanka, and Viradha are the most
celebrated. The A suras, and the Danavas, or giants, and Daityas,
or Titans, who warred against the gods, are also types of the
primitive barbarian peoples of India.

The Nagas are a mythical type of the Scythic race of snake-
worshippers, which in ancient times was spread all over India,
and is now represented by the Nagas of Manipur. The worship
of the snake still survives everywhere in India, and at Nagpur
was, until very recently, a public danger, from the manner in
which the city was allowed to be overrun with cobras. Battisa
Siralen, a town in the Satara collectorate, is also famous as a place
of serpent-worship at the present day ; and the whole of the
Canarese country is devoted to it. The most celebrated temple
dedicated to it is at Bhomaparanden in the Nizam's Dominion.
The Nagas are said to have first invaded India between b.c. 700
and 600. They are probably allied to the Scandinavians, which
would account for the traces of snake-worship to be found in
Northern Europe. In Miss Gordon Cumming's From the Hebrides
to the Himalayas, 1876, many most interesting facts are recorded
of snake-worship in Scotland and India.

Sesha Naga, or Ananta, " eternity," is the king of the Nagas,
often identified with Vamuki, who is also called the King of the
Nagas: but the historical King of the Nagas is probably
Vamuki, Sesha being an allegorical personification. Kaliya was
the great snake slain by Krisha in a deep pool of the Yumuna,
near Bindraband [Vrindavana]. All these snakes are worshipped
in great state every year at the Nagpanchami festival held on
the 5th Sravana [July-August].

The Bhutas, or ghosts, are attendants of Siva.
The female imps, known as Dakinis, or Asrapas [" blood-
suckers "], and Sakinis, and the eight sorceresses called Yoginis,
are attendants of Parvati, as Kali or Durga. They are specially
worshipped in Bombay on the 30th Sravana [July-August].

g 2

84 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

The Naikasheyas and Pisitasanas are cannibal imps descended
from Nikasha, the mother of Ravana.

Ravana was the demon king of Lanka, from which he expelled
his half-brother Kuvera ; and was in turn overthrown by Rama.

Bali was the usurping monkey-king of Kiskhindhya, who
was slain by Rama. He was the brother of Sugriva, the friend
and ally of Rama. He must be distinguished from Bali, the
good and virtuous Daitya king, to suppress whom Vishnu
became manifest in his dwarf avatar a.

Vital is a demon king whose worship prevails in the mountain
state of Sawantwadi, in the Bombay Presidency, and the legends
of him as the familiar and friend of the great Vikramaditya are
widely known under the name of Vital- Pachisi, or Baital- Pachisi
["twenty-five tales of Vital "] ; of eleven of which a capited version,
entitled " Vikram and the Vainpire" was published by Captain
Richard Burton in 1870.

Before the worship of any other deity, it is necessary that the
worship of the following deities, already described, should be
first performed, namely :

(1) Indra, Agni, Yama, Nirritu, Varuna, Pavana, Isa [Siva],
Ananta, Kuvera, and Brahma ;

(2) Surya, Ganesa, Siva, Durga, and Vishnu ;

(3) Ravi, Soma, Mangala, Budha, Brihaspati, Sukra, Sani,
Rahu, and Ketu.

Local Deities.

Besides the above deities, local deities are also everywhere
worshipped all over India. As they are seldom represented in
Indian art, nothing more need be said of them here, although
these often formless stocks and stones are deeply interesting as

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

illustrating the genesis of the Turanian gods of the Puranic
pantheon. They gradually become assimilated to some one or
other of the officinal gods, generally Siva or Vishnu, and their
saktis.

Miscellaneous Sacred Objects.
Sacred Stones*

Certain stones also are held in the highest worship, the chief
of them being the Salagrama, which is sacred to, and indeed
identified with, Vishnu. It is a fossil ammonite found in the river
Gandak in Nipal. The Binlang, a reddish stone found in the
Narmada [Nerbudda], and the Chandra Kanta or moon-stone,
and Surya Kanta, literally " sun-stone " [opal?], are also revered
as respectively representing Ganesa, Chandra, and Surya. But
the Saligrama is the only stone deriving its deity from itself, and
all other stones worshipped are made sacred by incantation.

Sacred Trees and Plants.

The following are the principal sacred trees of India. I am
indebted for this list, first published in my Catalogue of the Veget-
able Productions of Bombay, 1862, to the Honorable Rao Sahib,
Wishwanath Narayan Mandlik, member of the Legislative Council
of Bombay, and my friend the late Dr. Bhau Daji, of Bombay.

Sacred to the Trimurtu

^Egle Marmelos, sri-phala, ) 7 T

° . * ' } bel, vilva.

Crataeva rehgiosa, J

Sacred to Siva.

./Egle Marmelos, sri-phala, \ ^
Crataeva religiosa, j ?

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

Saracha indica [Jonesia Asoca], asoca.
Caesalpinia pulcherrima, an exotic.
Zizyphus Jujuba, kula, bore.
Jasminum Sambac, mallika.
Tabernaemontana coronaria, tagara.
Sesbania grandiflora, agasta.
Mimusops Elengi, kesara.
Mallotus Philippinensis, punnaga.
Gardenia florida, gundaharaja.
Michelia Champaca, champaka.
Anthocephalus [Nauclea] Cadamba, kadamba
Shorea robusta, sala.
Ficus religiosa, aswatt/ia, pipal.
Ficus benghalensis, war, vata.
Feronia elephantum, kapittha.
Elaeocarpus Ganitrus, radraksha.
And many others.

Sacred to Siva and Vishnu.

Jasminum undulatum.

Guettarda speciosa.

Mesua ferrea, naga-keshara.

Origanum Marjoram, marwa.

Ixora Bhanduca, bhanduca, ranjun.

Artemisia sp., downa.

Nerium odorum, kuruvira.

Chrysanthemum indicum, chandra-malika seunti.

Sacred to Vishnu.
Ocymum sanctum, tulsi.

Sacred to Lakshmu
Nelumbium speciosum, kamala.

[Plate I.

PURANIC GODS.

I. Bala-Knshna [the Boy-Krishna]. 2 . R ama and Sita. 5. Hanuman.

4 * Ravan:i - 5- Ganesa. 6 . Kama-deva.

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

Sacred to Parvati,
yEgle Marmelos, sri-phala, bel, vilva.
Phyllanthus Emblica, anola, aonla, amali.

Sacred to Kama-Deva.
Mesua ferrea, naga-keshara.
Pandanus odoratissimus, keura.
Mangifera indica, amba.
Michelia Champaca, champaca.
Pavonia odorata, bala.

Plants sacred to a the Hosts of Heaven"

To Ravi or Surya, Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis, jawa ; and

Calotropis gigantea, ak.
To Soma or Chandra, Butea frondosa, palasa ; and

Nymph aea Lotus, kamala.
To Manga/a, or Karttikeya, Acacia Catechu, khadira.
To Budha, Achyranthes aspera, apamorga.
To Brihaspati, Ficus religiosa, aswattha, pipal
To Sukra, Ficus glomerata, adambara.
To Sam] Acacia Suma, shami.
To Rahu, Cynodon Dactylon, durva, dub.
To Ketu, Poa cynosuroides, kusa.

Plants sacred to the Patricas, or Nine Porms of Kali.

To Rhamba, Musa paradisiaca, kaila, kadali.

To Kachwi-rupa, Arum esculentum, kachwi.

To Haridra, Curcuma longa, haridra.

To Jayanti, Sesbania aegyptiaca, jaya?iti.

To Vilva- rupa, ^Egle Marmelos, bel, vilva, sri-phala.

To Dareini, Punica Granatum, darima.

To Asoka, Saracha indica [Jonesia Asoca], asoka.

To Manaka, Alocasia macrorhizon, mana.

To Dhanya, Coriandrum sativum, dhanya.

88 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

The following plants receive special worship :

Ocymum sanctum, tulsi [sacred basil], daily.
Melia Azadirachta, niniba.

Bauhinia racemosa, v ana-raj a or apata, and apta

at the Durga puja, or Dusera.
Acacia Catechu, khair, khadira.
Prosopis spicigera, shami.

Ficus religiosa, aswattha, pipal, on the 30th of
each month, when it falls on a Monday.

Ficus benghalensis, vata, war [the banyan], on the
1 2th Jyestha [May-June].

Musa paradisiaca, kaila, kadali [plaintain], on
the 3rd Sravana [July-August].

Phyllanthus Emblica, aonla or amali, on the
12th Kartika [October-November].

Adansonia digitata, gorakhachincha [horse tama-
rind], on the nth of the dark half of Chaitra
[March-April],

The following are the common sacrificial woods of the Hindus
in Bombay :

Butea frondosa, palasa.
Prosopis spicigera, shami,
Calotropis gigantea, ak.
Achyranthes aspera, apamorga agareh.
Ficus glomerata, umbar, adambara.
Ficus benghalensis, vata, war.
Ficus religiosa, aswattha pipaL
Cynodon Dactylon, durva dub.
Poa cynosuroides, kusa.

The five leaves used for pouring libations in Bombay, and as
platters, are those of —

Mangifera indica, amba.
Eugenia Jambolana, jambitl.

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

Ficus benghalensis, war.
Ficus cordifolia, guy a- aswattha.
Ficus religiosa, aswattha pipal.

Roadside Trees,

The planting of great trees along the highways, and of groves
for halting-places, has from the most ancient times been a popular
custom in India, to the great solace of wayfarers \ and the Brah-
mans feign that he who plants a tree lives long. The trees
principally planted are :

Ficus religiosa, aswattha, pipal.
Ficus benghalensis, vata, war.
^Egle Marmelos, vilva, bel, sri-phala.
Saracha indica [Jonesia Asoca], asoka.
Mimusops Elengi, vakula, kesara.
Ficus infectoria, plucsha.
Ficus glomerata, adambara.
Dalbergia Sissoo, shingshupa.
Melia Azadirachta, nimba.
Michelia Champaca, cha??ipaka.
Mesua ferrea, nagkeshara.
Borassus flabelliformis, tala.
Cocos nucifera, narikela.

The Brahmans promise that he who plants 1 aswattha or
pipal, 2 champakas, 3 nagkes haras, 7 talas, and 12 narikelas, and
devotes them with their shade, leaves, flowers, and fruit to public
use, shall certainly inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Forbidden Plants.
Some flowers are forbidden to be offered to the gods. The
Tantric or Yantric flowers, used, on account of their fancied
symbolism, in sakti worship, such as Clitoria Ternatea, Sesbania

go INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA,

grandifiora, and Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis, are never offered to
Vishnu. But the flowers of Mimusops Elengi, although Yantric
flowers, may be offered to Vishnu ; and the Yantric flowers of the
Nerium odorum, or oleander, and Nelumbium speciosum, or
sacred lotus, may be offered to all the gods. The Hibiscus Rosa-
sinensis, Murraya exotica, Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, and some other
species of jasmine, are never offered to Siva ; and the Ocymum
sanctum may be offered only to Vishnu.

The following plants are frequently mentioned in the Vedas :

Sarcostemma viminale, soma, homa.
Bombax heptaphyllum, shalmali.
Butea frondosa, palasa.
Acacia Catechu, kadira.
Prosopis spicigera, shamL
Ficus religiosa, aswattha, pipal.
Cynodon Dactylon, durva.
Poa cynosuroides, kusa.

The following trees are found represented in the ancient
Buddhistic sculptures of India :

Musa paradisiaca, kaila, kadali.
Bambusa arundinacea, bansh.
Triticum variety, wheat.
Nelumbium speciosum, kamala.
Mangifera indica, amba.
Bignonia suaveolens, paruL
Shorea robusta, sala.
Eugenia Jambolana,/d7;//^/.
Acacia Lebbek, sin's.
Bauhinia variegata, kovidara.

Artocarpus integrifolia, the jack, including the
forms which I formerly identified with Anona
squamosa, the custard-apple, sita-phal.

THE HINDU PANTHEON. gi

Ficus religiosa, aswattha, pipal.
Ficus benghalensis, vata, war.
Ficus glomerata, umbar, adambara.
Borassus flabelliformis, tala, tar.
Phoenix sylvestris, kajur.

Sacred Animals.

All the animals, which are the vahans or vehicles of the gods,
are sacred, namely the antelope, bull, buffalo, dog, goat, elephant,
lion, peacock, rat, serpent, tiger, &c. \ also the jackal in some
parts, as an incarnation of Parvati or Durga. And above all the
cow. Brahma is said to have created the Brahmans and the cow
at the same time ; the Brahmans to offer the sacrifices, and the
cow to yield the ghee, or clarified butter for kindling them. The
eating of ghee destroys all sin \ and the eating of the five pro-
ducts of the cow cleanses from all pollution. The dung of the
cow is universally used for spreading over floors and walls on
"scrubbing days," and, strange to say, it has the effect of a
scrubbing on them, cleansing them perfectly, and giving a room
the fragrance of the Tonquin bean. How would Dr. Richardson
explain it ?

Sacred Men.

The Brahmins are objects of worship ; as is also the Ran a of
Udaipur, the representative of the Solar Race or Surya-Vansa.
In later times, long after the age of Rama Chandra, the kingdom
of Ayodhya merged in that of Kanouj. Afterwards a second
dynasty was established at Vallabi, and when, a.d. 524-579,
Naushirvan, the famous Sassanian king of Persia, drove the last
of the Vallabis out of Gujarat, the Vallabi Prince Goha was
married to the daughter of Naushirvan. She was granddaughter
of Maurice, Emperor of Constantinople, and from her are

92 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

descended the present Ranas of Udaipur, who thus, according
to the genealogists, represent at once the legendary hero of the
Ramayana, the Sassanian kings of Persia, and the Caesars of
Rome. The Ranas are always represented in their portraits
with an aureole round their heads.

Ganesa was supposed to be hereditary for seven generations
in the family of a gosain, named Muraba, near Poona; and the
last inheritor of his godship died within the recollection of many
persons now living in the Maratha country. Krishna is held to
be incarnated in every Maharaja or high-priest of the Vaish-
nava sect of Vallabharcharya. Their first tenet is that God is
only truly served by the absolute prostitution of themselves in
body, soul, and property to their priests \ and the rasa-?nandala }
or circular dance of Krishna, performed in the dark room, is their
most solemn sacrament.

Miscellaneous Sacred Things.

The Vedas also are deified J so are the Itihasas and Puranas. I
have known Roxburgh's Coromandel Flora and Wallich's Plants
AstaticcB Rariores to be worshipped \ and it is difficult indeed to
say what the Hindus will not worship. Every kind of imple-
ment used in earning a livelihood is sacred, and adored at stated
periods, particularly the ploughshare, weaver's loom, and the
potter's wheel. Everything which is or resembles an attribute of
the gods becomes an object of reverence and worship. In every
prominence Siva is seen, in every depression Vishnu, Krishna, and
the Matris or " divine mothers," the prakriti or saktis of the gods.

Sacred Places.

All rivers are sacred; and the rivers Ganges [Ganga],
Nerbudda [Narmuda], are specially sacred. One of the holiest
spots on the Ganges, and indeed in India, is the place where the

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

Jumna [Yamuna], and sacred Ganges, and mystic Saraswati, which
is supposed to join them by an underground passage, meet at
Allahabad, called by the Hindus Prayaga, or " the confluence/' and
Triveni, or " the triple braid." It is personified by a fish bearing on
its back three goddesses. [Plate J, Fig. 4.] The place of the junc-
tion of two rivers is called Sangam, of which there is a remarkable
illustration in the junction of the Muta and Mula, near Poona.
Sir Charles Malet wished to build the Government House within
the precinct of the Sangam Deva, or presiding deity, which, to
oblige the English Governor, the attendant Brahmans consented
to remove to another part of the Sangam.

The seven sacred Indian cities, a visit to which confers
eternal happiness, are, 1, Ayodhya [Oudh], the city of Rama ;
2, Mathura [Mutra], the city of Krishna ; 3, Maya [Buddha Gay a],
the City of Illusion ; 4, Kasi [Benares], the city of Siva as
Visweswara ; 5, Kanchi [Conjeveram] ; 6, Avanti, or Avantika
[Ujjayini, i.e. Oojain] ; and 7, Dwaraka, or Dwaravati [i.e. " gates
[doors] of wind" — Dwarka], Go Kama ["cow's ear"], near
Mangalore, Rameswaram, and Somnath Pattan, all having cele-
brated temples of Siva, are also sacred cities. Ganga-Sagara
is a holy bathing place, sacred to Vishnu, at the mouth of the
Ganges.

Sacred Mountains.

All mountains are sacred. Jwala-Mukhi, " mouth of fire,"
a volcano in the Lower Himalayas north of the Panjab, where
fire issues from the ground, is a celebrated place of pilgrimage.
According to the legend it is the fire which Sati, the wife of Siva,
created, and in which she burned herself. Govardhana, near
Muttra, is sacred to Krishna ; and hid in the depths of the
Himalayas [Himmel] is Mount Meru, the abode of all the
gods.

94 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

Of Mount Meru and Mount Kailasa, the Hindu Olympus.

In the Hindu cosmogony the world is likened to a lotus-
flower floating in the centre of, as it were, a shallow circular
vessel, which has for its stalk an elephant, and for its pedestal
a tortoise. The seven petals of the lotus flower represent
the sapta dwipas, or seven divisions of the world as known
to the ancient Hindus, and the tabular torus, which rises from
their centre, represents Mount Meru, the ideal Himalaya
[Himmel], the Hindu Olympus. It is not only a simple and
artistic conception of the geographical distribution of the countries
of the old world, but quite rational ; for the old world is all one
continent, having its culminating point in the Himalayas, round
which the peninsulas of India and Further India, Arabia, Assyria,
Asia Minor, Africa, and Europe, lie extended like the petals
of a lotus flower round its torus. India is Jambu-dwipa, the
peninsula of myrtle blooms ; and it is from the forest of Gandha-
madana, which forms a belt of most delightful fragrance round
its base, that Mount Meru gradually rises from the earth, through
mid-air, into heaven. It rises by seven spurs, on which the
separate cities and palaces of the gods are built amid green woods
and murmuring streams, in seven circles one above another. On
the eastern spur is Swarga, with the stately city of Amaravati, the
heaven of Indra. There also is the aerial city of the Gandharvas,
Vismapana, "the astounding," which appears and disappears at
intervals, like the sound of music heard in air; and the tree
Parajita, the delight of the lovely Apsarases, which perfumes
the whole world with its blossoms, each of 1,000 petals. North-
ward, on the Mandana spur, amid the glades of the Chaitra-Ratha
forest, rises Mount Kailasa [caelus], the heaven of Kuvera, which
is also Siva's heaven, and Ganesa's. There is Kuvera's aerial car
of jewelled lapis lazuli, and Siva's throne of fervent gold. On the
west, on Mount Suparswa, in the groves of Vaibhraja, is Vaikuntha,
the paradise of Vishnu j and over all, on the summit of Meru, is

[Plate K.

PURANIC GODS.

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

Brahmapura, the entranced city of Brahma, encompassed by the
sources of the sacred Ganges, and the orbits in which forever shine
the sun, and silver moon, and seven planetary spheres. Beneath
Mount Meru are the seven circles [inhabited by the Nagas,
1 )anavas, Rakshasas, and others] of Patala, the Hindu hell, where
in the seventh or lowermost circle is Bhogavati or Put-Kari.
the voluptuous subterranean capital of the Nagas, in which
reigns Vasuki, or Shesha-Naga [Ananta], in great majesty and power.
He upholds Mount Meru, and the seven divipas on his sevenfold
head. When he yawns, the world is shaken by earthquakes, and
when at the end of each kalpa he uncoils his mighty folds, the
whole creation topples down, and passes away like a scroll in
the blasts of fire he belches forth.

Narada, the leader of the Gandharvas, who once paid a visit to
these infernal regions, on returning to his native skies, gave a most
glowing account of them, declaring them to exceed in glory and
delight even the splendours and gracious pleasures of the heaven
of Indra.

The Hindu Sects and Sectarial Marks.

The innumerable sects of the Hindus all merge into one or
other of the five following :

1. The Saivas, who worship Siva and Parvati conjointly.

2. The Vaishnavas, who worship Vishnu.

3. The Sauras, who worship Surya, the Sun.

4. The Ganapatias, who worship Ganesa.

5. The Saktas, who worship the sakti or female energy of
Siva.

The fourth sect, the Ganapatias, and the fifth, the Saktas, are
ramifications of the first, the Saivas, who may thus be subdivided
into,

9 6

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

(a) Saivas proper, who worship the linga-yo?ii symbol.

(b) Lingaits, who worship Siva in his lingam, or phallic
form.

(d) Ganapatias, adorers of Siva's son Ganesa.

The second sect, the Vaishnavas, may be subdivided into :

{a) The Gokulas, the worshippers of Vishnu as Krishna,
who adore either Krishna exclusively, or Radha exclusively, or
Krishna and Radha conjoined.

(b) The Ramanuj, or worshippers of Rama-Chandra ; who
likewise are divided into the worshippers of Rama only, of Sita
only, and of Rama and Sita conjoined.

The Saktas, or exclusive adorers of the female energy, whether
of Siva, Krishna, or Rama, are divided into the sub-sects of the
Dakshinacharis and Vamacharis, the " right-handed," and " left-
handed," the ritual of the latter always being indecent. But all
these sects merge into one another. The resemblance of Vishnu's
navel to the linga-yoni symbol of Siva was early seen, and the
Saivas and Vaishnavas are practically one. In Bombay the
Brahmans have a saying : " The heart of Vishnu is Siva, and the
heart of Siva is Vishnu, and those who think they differ err.'»
The Jainas, the modern Buddhists of India, may be classed as
Vaishnavas.

All these sects, except the "left-handed" Saktas, are distin-
guished by symbols of the deities they worship marked on their
foreheads, arms, and breasts. The Vaishnavas are distinguished
by perpendicular lines with or without a dot or circle between
them, or by a chakra or disc, or by a triangle, shield, cone, heart-
shape, or any similar form, having its apex pointed downward,
as Vishnu is water, the property of which is to descend. [Plate
M, Nos. 6-35.] The Saivas are distinguished by two or more
horizontal lines, with or without a dot, below or above the lines,

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

<J7

or on the middle line j or with or without the oval, or half-oval,
typical of his third eye bisecting the lines : also by a triangle, or
any other pointed or arched object having its apex or convex
end upward, as Siva is fire, the property of which is to ascend.
Also the crescent moon and the trisula or trident indicate a
votary of Siva. [Plate M, Nos. 36 to 69.]

Images of Ganesa and Karttikeya bear the marks of Siva.
The images of Indra, Agni, Chandra, Krishna, Rama, Buddha,
and Hanuman bear the marks of Vishnu.

The images of Brahma, who is both water and fire, bear the
sectarial marks either of Siva or Vishnu, or both combined.
[Plate M, Nos. 1 to 5.]

The dot, or parm, is the mark of the Supreme Being, and
with the lines of Vishnu or Saiva, indicates that the votary so
marked claims for Vishnu or Siva, as the case may be, the preroga-
tives of supreme godhead. The swastika [Plate M, No. 70] is
the mark distinguishing the Tantric sects. But the left-handed
Saktas never avow themselves, and the right-hand seldom bear
on the forehead the peculiar mark of their sect for fear of being
suspected of belonging to the other branch.

These sectarial marks are colored red, yellow, black, and ashen
white ; and are made of ashes taken from the sacrificial fires
cowdung, earth of the Ganges, turmeric, sandal wood, chunam
or lime, red sanders, and turmeric, made adhesive by a size of
rice-water.

The horizontal lines of the Saivas are white, and the dot or
circlet added to them is painted red, with sanders wood. The
Ganapatias paint this dot or circlet with minium, and the Saktas
in saffron. The Suras, or worshippers of Surya, paint the three
horizontal lines, as well as the circlet or dot, all in red saunders
Considerable latitude is allowed to individual taste and caprice in
painting these lines and dots or circlets : and generally the whole
character of a Hindu is betrayed at a glance by the manner in
which he is marked on his forehead; whether he is orthodox

9 3

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

from conviction, or merely from fashion, or caprice ; or whether
latitudinarian, or unbelieving; and in conduct loose, or strict,
and in temper sober, hard, or gay,

The Jatnas, and their Twenty-four Jins.

Buddhism, the religion of Nipal, Bhutan, Ceylon, Burma,
Assam, Siam, China, Japan, Mongolia, Tibet, and of the Kirghis
and Kalmuck Tartars, or of nearly 500,000,000 of the human
race, survives in India, the holy land of its birth, only [exclud-
ing Nipal and Bhutan] in the sect of Jainas, who are worshippers
of the images of the twenty-four sectarian saints or Jins, from
whose generic designation they take their name. But before de-
scribing these images it is necessary to refer to the rise of Buddhism
in India, not simply to explain the existence of the Jainas, but
because the rise and establishment of Buddhism in India is
so intimately associated with the origin of Indian architecture.
According to Fergusson, India owes the introduction of the use
of stone for architectural purposes to the great Buddhist king
Asoka, who reigned from B.C. 272 to 236, or 260 to 224; and
the Buddhists would seem to have learned to employ stone in
building from the Greeks and Persians, subsequent to Alex-
ander's invasion of the Panjab, B.C. 337. India has no ancient
history, in the strict sense of the word, before the Buddhistic mil-
lennium, dating from- the death of Gautama Buddha, B.C. 543, to
the seventh and ninth centuries of our era, when, with the earliest
appearances of the Arabs in Sindh, the modern history of India
may be said to begin. While Gautama Buddha was preaching in
India, China was at the same time being stirred by the teaching
of Confucius, Greece by that of Pythagoras, and Persia by the
religious reformation of Zoroaster. It was an age when, owing
to the throwing open of the Egyptian ports to free trade by
Psammetichus, b.c. 670, commercial intercourse between the
Eastern and Western people of the ancient world had undoubtedly

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

become more intimate than is generally recognised ; and from this
date the history of Europe and Asia becomes one and con-
tinuous. From the establishment of Buddhism to the fifth and
sixth centuries a.d., when the earlier Puranas were compiled,
we are almost wholly dependent for our real knowledge of India
on the Buddhist monuments and inscriptions, and the writings of
the Greek officers of Alexander, Seleucus, and the Ptolemies, and
of the Chinese pilgrims who visited the country during the Buddhist
period. There is no known Hindu temple, Mr. Fergusson says,
older than the sixth or fifth century of the Christian era j and all
the earlier stone buildings in India are Buddhist. Apart from the
Buddhist monuments and inscriptions, it is only in the sacred books
of the Hindus that we are able to trace the vague and broken
outlines of the history of ancient India. All other contemporary
native records, if any ever existed, have, so far as is known, perished.
Hence, notwithstanding the great antiquity of Hindu civilisation,
the chronological history of India is comparatively modern. The
people themselves date their chronology, in Hindustan, from
Vikramaditya, King of Ujjayini [Ujain], b.c. 57, and in the Dakhan
from his reputed rival Salivahana, king of Prati-shthana [Paithun]
on the Godaveri, whose era, called also the Saka era, is dated from
a.d. 78; and there is no connected native chronicle of events in
India until after the invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni, a.d. 1001-24.
From time immemorial the precious productions of the country
had been known to the people of the West ; and in the fifth century
B.C. Afghanistan and the Panjab furnished troops to Xerxes in his
invasion of Greece, who were left with Mardonius, and fought at
Platoea. Still, all our knowledge of India is purely legendary and
conjectural until the time of Alexander. From the Vedas and
the traditions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata it is supposed
that the Aryas must first have entered Afghanistan and the
Panjab about three thousand years before Christ the mythological
Hindu era known as the Kali-Yuga y beginning b.c. 3101.
They gradually drove before them the great Dravidian races

h 2

I.OO

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

now occupying the Madras Presidency, who had entered India
from the west long before the Aryas ; and the Turanian races,
who had in equally remote prehistoric times poured in through
the eastern passes of the Himalayas and occupied the whole of
the valley of the Ganges ; and the wild aboriginal tribes who
found their last refuge in the hills of Central India. The
Ramayana is the record of the invasion of the Dakhan and
conquest of Ceylon by Rama, and the date of the events it
records is fixed at b.c. 1200. The date of the wars of the kin-
dred Pandavas and Kauravas, which are the subject of the
Mahabharata, is fixed at b.c. 1400. The Aryas must have been
long settled in Hindustan before civil strife could have broken
out among them, or Rama have attempted the conquest of the
Dakhan and Ceylon. In the Mahabharata mention is made of
Magadha, the modern Bihar, and Sahadeva, a prince of the
Lunar dynasty, was then king. It was in Magadha, at Gaya [after-
wards known as Buddha-Gaya], and at Kasi, or Varanasi [Benares],
that Gautama first preached Buddhism in the reign of Ajata-
satru, the thirty-fourth or thirty-fifth in succession, according to the
Puranic genealogies, from Sahadeva. Gautama, Prince Siddhartha,
afterwards called Sakya-Muni, "the Sakya-saint," and "the Lord
Buddha/' was born B.C. 623, at Kapilavastu, now Nagar-Khus,
about forty miles west of Ayodhya [Oudh], and died b.c. 543 at
Kasinagara, now Kasia, about sixty miles east of Kapilavastu.
The success of his teaching was immediate. It appealed at once
to the instinctive pessimism of the Turanian populations of
Eastern Hindustan and their repugnance to the Brahmanical
system of their Aryan conquerors, and also to the traditional
antagonism of the Kshatriyas themselves toward the Brahman
priesthood; and even before the coming of Gautama Buddha,
who utterly rejected caste and priesthood, the Brahmanical system
was beginning to give way before the growing secular power
of the Kshatriya princes. The sixth king of Magadha, from
Ajatasatru, was Nanda, and there were ten Nandas who

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

IOI

reigned for about 100 years from b.c. 400, and it was
during their time that Alexander's invasion took place. It
was in b.c. 325 that the Grecian camp on the Hyphasis was
visited by a defeated rebel escaping from the hands of the king #
of Magadha. This fugitive was treated only with contempt by
Alexander, but when the Greeks had marched back from the
Hyphasis, he gathered round him the tribes of the Panjab, and
gradually extended his power, until, about b.c. 315, he was, on the
death of the last Nanda, placed on the vacant throne of Magadha,
under the name of Chandragupta, the Sandracottus of the
Greeks, whom, after defeating Seleucus, he drove out of India.
Neither Chandragupta, nor his son Bindusara, were Buddhists,
but the third of the race, Piyadasi, better known under the name
of Asoka [b.c. 272-236 or 260-224], openly adopted the
popular and now triumphant creed, and made it the state religion
of India. He is the Constantine of Buddhism. Edicts of his
establishing Buddhism have been found sculptured in Phoenician
letters on rocks in Cuttack, Gujarat, and elsewhere. The most
celebrated of them are at (1) Girnar, near Junaghar j (2) at
Kapur-di-giri, near Peshawar; (3) at Dhauli in Orissa; and (4) on
hits, or " pillars," at Delhi and Allahabad. He began the great
Buddhist tope or burial shrine at Sanchi, 130 miles east of
Ujjayini, about b.c. 267 or 255.

When Gautama Buddha died under the sal tree (Shorea
robusta) at Kasia, his body was burned with great reverence by
the local rajas of Malwa, and his charred bones, which they dis-
tributed over the whole country, afterwards gave rise to the stufas,
dagobas, topes, or relic mounds, which have been discovered in so
many parts of India, from the valley of Cabul to the banks of the
Kistna. Only eight of these mounds were shrines of actual relics
of Gautama Buddha himself, and these are distinguished by Mr.
Fergusson by the name of dagobas [from dhatu, a relic, literally
" tooth," and garba, casket, literally « womb"], of which the modern
word "pagoda" is a corruption. The Buddhist stupa or tope is

io2 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

derived by Fergusson from the burial mounds of the Turanian
races, but, as in India the body is not buried, but burned, the stupa
or tope must be described as a relic, or simply monumental
mound. At the original distribution of the ashes of Gautama
Buddha, his left canine tooth fell to the province of Orissa, and
was enshrined at Dantapura, the " tooth-city," the modern Puri,
where the hideous image of Krishna as Jagan-natha has been in-
geniously shewn by General Gunningham to be nothing more than
the trisula symbol, used as one of the finials of the Buddhist
tope which formerly existed there. The possession of the tooth
by the Buddhists at Dantapura led to so much opposition by the
Brahmans, that after lying there for nearly 800 years, it was about
a.d. 311 removed, to put it out of danger, to Ceylon, where it [it
is not a human tooth] still remains. The tope at Amravati near
Gantur on the Kistna was built about a.d. 322-380 in com-
memoration of the resting of the tooth at that place on its way to
Ceylon. But there are traces of earlier Buddhistic sculptures at
Amravati, dating possibly from the Christian era. Another tooth
was enshrined in a pagoda on the island of Salsette near Bombay
a.d. 234, but this tooth and its pagoda have both long since dis-
appeared. Gautama's celebrated begging-pot was enshrined in
the mound erected by Kaniska a.d. 10-50, near Peshawur, the
ancient Gandhara, but in after ages it was conveyed to the modern
Candahar, where it is said to be religiously preserved by the
Mahommedans as a most sacred relic. The number of Buddhist
topes which have been found in the Cabul valley, about Jellalabad,
proves at once how completely the Greek power was at last ex-
tinguished by the Scythians in Bactriana, and how remarkable an
influence it had on the architecture and allied arts of India. The
other well known Buddhist topes are the noble tower erected at
Buddha Gaya, immediately in front of the bodhi tree [Ficus
religiosa] under which Gautama, Prince Siddhartha, attained to
Buddhahood, and which is still growing; and the tape at Sarnath
in the "Deer Park" near Benares, where Buddha first publicly

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

*°3

promulgated the doctrines and precepts of the " Way of Life " and
" Gate of Righteousness." But the most interesting of all these
Buddhistic topes is that at Bharhut, about one hundred miles
northward from Jubbulpur, in the Central Provinces. It was dis-
covered by General Cunningham in 1873, and is assigned by him
to the date b.c. 250, the age of the oldest portions of the topes at
Bhilsa and Buddha Gaya. Under the Maurya dynasty founded by
Asoka, Magadha rose to great eminence. Trunk roads traversed the
whole of Hindustan from Pataliputra [Palibothra of the Greeks],
the modern Patna, westward to the Panjab, and southward, past
Bharhut and Bhilsa, to Amravati on the Kistna J and southwest-
ward, by Nasik, to Kalyan, the great port of Western India in
ancient times, before it was superseded by Tanna in the middle
ages [Mahommedan period], and by Bombay after the Portuguese
discovery of the sea-way to India round the Cape of Good
Hope. The most intimate commercial intercourse was established
with Syria and Egypt : alliances were formed with Antiochus the
Great, Antigonus, Ptolemy Philadelphia, and Magas of Cyrene,
for the establishment of hospitals, and the protection of Buddhists
travelling in their territories, and the arts and sciences and
literature of India reached their highest perfection. The whole
country was covered with magnificent colleges for the education
and retreat of pious Buddhists. These buildings were called
viharas, a word which gives its name to Bihar, the ancient
Magadha, to the great Vihar reservoir near Bombay, and to the
city of Bokhara, "Holy Bokhara," in Central Asia; and thus
proves the complete ascendency which Buddhism must at one
time have attained in all the countries which naturally fall within
the political and commercial influence of India. It spread into
Ceylon about the end of the third century b.c, and into Tibet
and China a.d. 65 j and was carried in the fifth century a.d. by
Chinese missionaries into Mexico, where it flourished until the
thirteenth century, when it was extirpated by the victorious Aztecs.
But in .India itself the Brahmans never ceased to oppose, and,

io4 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

when they could, to stir up war and persecution against the
new state religion. Their great champion was Vicramaditya,
the Charlemagne of the Brahmanical revival. Mr. Fergusson
believes that he really lived in' the sixth century, and that it
was simply to make his glory greater that the Brahmans antedated
his era to B.C. 56. Be this as it may, in the seventh century
Buddhism had almost disappeared from India, except among the
fastnesses of the inner Himalayas, in Nipal and Bhutan. In the
city of Benares itself it lingered until the ninth century. Its
great opponent in the Dakhan was Sankara Acharya, the Saiva
missionary who flourished in the eighth or ninth century.

The Jainas first begin to appear conspicuously on the field
of Indian history in the seventh and eighth centuries; and the
survival of this sect from the fierce persecutions of Buddhism
in the eighth and ninth centuries was owing to its compromise
with Brahmanism. The Jainas deny indeed the divine inspiration
of the Vedas, but they strictly observe caste, and admit the
authority of the Brahmans, and acknowledge the whole Hindu
pantheon : and provided the rules of caste are observed, the
Brahmans will allow of the utmost latitude of religious belief
and philosophical opinion. It was resistance to caste and to the
sacerdotal claims of the Brahmans which made the impassable
gulf between Buddhism and Hinduism.

The Buddhist theogony is essentially identical with the
Brahmanical. There is the supreme Adi-Buddha, who sprung
from the seven-fold lotus, the Buddhistic analogue of the mundane
eggs, and created the five divine Budd/ias, each of whom produced
from himself a son or Bodhisatwa : and there are the seven human
or earth-born Buddhas, of whom only the seventh, Gautama, the
Sakya-Muni, is historical. The future Buddha is called Arya
Maitri. Again, the Buddhist triad, or mystic syllable AUM, is
the identical formula of every Hindu god. The letter a is the
vija-mantra of the male Buddha, the generative power; u, the
ditto of the female Dharma [Law], the type of productive

SECTARIAL MARKS.

[Plate M.

(11

ff7

No,. 7 , K> 74 marks of the Buddhist, and Jain,,. ' * * ^

THE HINDU PANTHEON,

power; and m, the Sanga [" congregation "], or union of the
essences of both. All the Buddhas have their saktis ; their
vahans, or vehicles; and their attributes, the chakra [wheel],
vajra [thunder-bolt], padma [lotus], trisula [trident], ganta
[bell], &c. : and as with the Hindu idols, so with the
images of the Buddhists, at least the later, and the Jins of the
Jainas, the trail of the old Scythic serpent is over them all.
With all its pseudo-spiritualism Buddhism was always in practice
more grossly materialistic even than Hinduism. Beside the
Hindu deities, the Jainas especially worship certain saints, twenty-
four in number, called Jins, or Tirthankaras [" those who by
ascetic practices have crossed the ocean of human existence "],
as superior to the Puranic gods. Of these, Parswanath is the
twenty-third, and Mahavira the twenty-fourth ; the date of the
latter being not anterior to a.d. iioo. Their images seem to
an ordinary observer to be almost identical in appearance,
but are easily distinguished on closer inspection by their
symbols. When painted, two of them are represented black,
two white, two blue, two red, and the rest tawny orange. But in
stone they appear as black or white curly-headed upright or seated
images, which it is impossible to identify except by their arbitrary
characters. It is said that those marked with incised lines round
the neck and down the breast are of late origin. They are often
marked on their feet or hands with the lotus or with the chakra
or wheel, which is the Buddhistic symbol of Dharma. General
Cunningham considers that the trisula represents Dharma, the
Law; more probably it represents Buddha; but these are all
really phallic symbols, and Dharma means the productive power
of nature, the Buddhistic emblem of which is the wheel. Every
native of India would at once recognise the trisula as the
symbol of the generative power, and the chakra or wheel of the
productive. The Tree so conspicuous in all the ancient
Buddhistic sculptures of India has with great probability been
supposed to represent Sanga, or the Congregation. It is also

106 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA,

represented, I believe, by a sort of heraldic pun, by the Buddhistic
sinha, or lion. These Buddhistic symbols are represented in
Plate M, Figs. 71 to 74.

Great doubt, however, exists as to the real meaning of the
trisula and chakra ; and much interest attaches to the solution of
the riddle. Mr. Fergusson considers that the key of the mystery
may be found in the annexed diagram.

This emblem is found also in China and Japan, inscribed
with Sanskrit letters, which serve further to designate the parts.
Thus the square marked a means the earth; the circle va
represents water ; the triangle ra, fire ; the crescent ka, wind ; and
the cone kka, ether. In this way the trisula would represent the
five elements of the material universe. 1 I have seen in native
primers and broad-sheets the earth represented by a square,
water by a circle or half-circle, fire by a triangle, and air by
a crescent ; but I have never seen the ether represented by any
symbol. On the other hand, an upward pointed triangle, and
the crescent, and the cone, are all symbols of Siva, and sectarial
marks of the Saivas. The crescent and cone, or flame, constantly
occur in Mongol [Turkoman] decorative art. The Buddhist tri-
1 Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship, ed. 1873, PP. "St 116.

THE HINDU PANTHEON. 107

ratna, " triple-gem " jewel, symbolical of Buddha, the Law, and
the Congregation, combines the form of the insula and chakra.
It is, I believe, only another form of the yoni-lingam. I believe
the Buddhist [Turanian] swastika to be the origin of the key-
pattern ornament of Chinese decorative art.

The Jainas are chiefly found in Gujarat and Kanara j and their
sacred places are Palitana, a city of Jaina temples, and Mount
Abu, the chief peak of the Aravulli mountains in Rajputana.
They formerly abounded in Southern India, but were much
persecuted, particularly at Madura, and finally driven out in
the eleventh century.

The Hindu Temples.

The triumph of the Brahmans over the Buddhists was but short-
lived. As they emerged from their retreat in the south, and slowly
but surely regained their lost position in the north, the Arabs, fol-
lowed by the Afghans and Mongols, began to appear in Sindh and
the Panjab j and the thousand years of Buddhist supremacy were
followed by the thousand years, from the eighth to the eighteenth
century, of the tyranny and devastation of the Mahommedan
rulers of India. The Mahommedan invasions began with the
first desultory incursions of the Arabs under Muhalib, a.d. 664
and Kasim, a.d. 7 n. T he Panjab was occupied by the
Turkoman Sabaktegin a.d. 976-996. Hindustan was invaded
twelve times between a.d. iooi and 1024 by Mahmud of Gazni
founder of the first Afghan dynasty of India, which reigned ai
Gazm and Lahor a.d. 996-1186. It was this fierce iconoclast
who sacked and destroyed the Hindu shrines of Taneshwur 1011 •
ot Muttra about 1019 j and of Somnath Pattan 1024. MUhommed
of Ghor, the founder of the second Afghan dynasty, overthrew the
Tomara and Choan Rajputs at Panipat in n 9 i, and at Taneshwar
in 1 1 94. In 1 1 94 he drove the Rathor Rajputs from Kanouj

io8 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

and Benares into Marwar, where their descendants continued to
reign ; and before his death, in 1206, the Afghan dominion was
firmly established in Gujarat and Oudh, and in Bengal and Bahar,
then ruled by the Sena rajas. The chief Hindu princes now left
in India were the rajas of Malwa ; the Ballabi rajas of Gujarat ;
the Chalukya rajas of Kalyan ; the Andhra rajas of Warangal;
and the Bellala rajas of Dwara Samudra [" door of the sea "] or
Hallabid in Mysore. The Pandyas, whose kingdom was founded
in the fifth century B.C., still continued to reign at Madura, and
the ancient Chola dynasty at Tanjore, and the Cheras in Travan-
core, Malabar, and Coimbatore. The conquest of Hindustan was
completed by the annexation of Malwa, Marwar, Gwalior, and
Ujjain in 1231, by the third Afghan dynasty, which ruled at Delhi
from a.d. 1206 to 1288. In 12 1 2 the alarm reached India of
the conquest of Chingiz Khan in Central Asia ; and in the reign
of Mahmud II. [1 244-1 266] an embassy was received at Delhi
from Halaku Khan, the grandson of Chingiz. The chief event
during the fourth Afghan dynasty, a.d. 1288-132 i, was the first
Mahommedan invasion of the Dakhan in 1294 by Alla-ud-din
Khilji, the Sanguinary. Deoghir and Ellichpur were both taken
and sacked. In 1297-98 Pathan or Anhalwara, the ancient
capital of Gujarat, was utterly destroyed. The subjugation of
Rajputana was completed by the conquest of Rintambor in 1300
and of Chitor in 1303 : and Hallabid in Mysor was destroyed in
13 10. In 1298 occurred the first serious incursion of the Mongols
into India, when 200,000 Turkoman horsemen succeeded in reach-
ing Delhi, where they were utterly annihilated. The fifth Afghan
dynasty of the house of Tughlak reigned at Delhi from 13211,01412.
Juna Khan, the second emperor, took and destroyed Warangal
in 1323 ; but the period is chiefly remarkable for the revolt of the
Mahomniedan governors of the Dakhan, and of many of the provin-
cial governors of Hindustan from the Afghans, and for the terrible
Mongol invasion under Tamerlane, a.d. 1398. The four Seiads of
the sixth Afghan dynasty, a.d. 1414 to 1450, were nominally the

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

109

viceroys of the Mongols. The seventh and last Afghan dynasty of
the house of Lodi lasted from 1450 to 1526, when it was overthrown
at the great battle of Panipat by the Mongols under Sultan Baber,
the founder of the Mogol empire of India, which continued as a
political power until 1806, and nominally to the death of the
17th Mogol emperor, Mahommed Bahadar, one of the chief
instigators of the mutiny of 1857. It was during the last
Afghan dynasty that the Portuguese first landed at Calicut
on May 22, 1498.

After the revolt of 1347, the supremacy of Delhi was not
again restored in the Dakhan until the time of Akbar, the third
Mogol emperor, a.d. 1556-1605. It was during the confusion
which followed this rebellion that the fugitives from Warangal
founded the powerful Hindu kingdom of Vijanagar, or Bijanagar,
which is so often mentioned by the earlier European travellers
in India, and now represented by the kingdom of Mysore. The
first independent Mahommedan kingdom of the Dakhan was that
of the Brahmani kings who reigned at Kulburga, and afterwards
at Bidar, from 1347 to 1526. Mahommed II., the fourteenth and
last real king of the dynasty, added the Hindu kingdom of Orissa
and the Konkan to his dominions, a.d. 1482-15 18. The Brahmani
state after its dissolution was divided into the five Mahommedan
kingdoms of Bijapur, a. d. 1489-1689 ; Ahmadnagar, a.d. 1490-
1637 ; Golconda, a.d. 15 12-1687 ; Berar, a.d. 1484-1574; and of
Bidar and Kandesh [including Burhanpur and Asigarh], which
lasted from about a.d. 1489 to 1599. All these kingdoms were
one after another subverted by Akbar, a.d. 1556-1605, and
Aurungzib, the sixth Mogol emperor, a.d. 1 658-1 707. It was
during the reign of Aurungzib that the Maratha rebellion began
in Western and Central India, which gradually undermined the
power of the great Mogols, until at last in 1806 Shah Alam II.
had to place himself under the protection of the British. From
the time indeed of the invasion of the Dakhan by Alla-ud-din in
1294 to its final conquest by the British in 1803-5 and 1817-19,

no INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

it was a continued battle-field; Mahommedans kept fighting
against Hindus, the Afghan and Mogol emperors of Delhi against
the Dakhan Mahommedan states, the Marathas against both,
and Haidar Ali, during his usurpation of the Hindu kingdom
of Mysore against the Marathas, until the British were forced to
stay the ceaseless strife. Then at length was restored to India
such unbroken peace as it had not enjoyed since the ancient times
immediately before the invasion of Alexander, the period of the
composition of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, when the
Hindus reached their highest point of prosperity and cultivation.

It was only in the south of India that the Brahmans for the
first few years of the terrible Mahommedan millennium found any-
thing like a sure retreat. Buddhism had never been accepted by
the Dravidians, and it was into the Dakhan that the Brahmans
had fled during its supremacy in Hindustan ; and there again,
among the old Hindu states, they found a natural asylum
from their Mahommedan persecutors. No Hindu temple, Mr.
Fergusson says, has been brought to light in Southern India older
than the eighth century a. a, but from that time forward the
building activity of the Dravidians becomes marked, and culminates
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Architecture thus
appears to have arisen in Southern India a thousand years later
than in Northern India, where the first stone monuments date
from the edict pillars of Asoka.

Mr. Fergusson's classification of the styles of Indian archi-
tecture is arranged according to the affinities of their progressive
development from the ancient Buddhist— " a wooden style,
painfully struggling into lithic forms "—through all its historical
and geographical modifications to the truly lithic forms of
the Jaina, Dravidian, Chalukyan, and Indo-Aryan styles. The
architecture of India begins [as unequivocally stated in 1855
by Mr. Fergusson] with a strong admixture of Greek art, the
effects of which we are able to trace for centuries in the
architecture of the valleys of Cashmere and Cabul. The classical

SACRIFICIAL UTENSILS.

[Plate N.

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

character of the extensive collection of the Buddhistic sculp-
tures from the neighbourhood of Peshawar, which have been
exhibited by Dr. Leitner at the India Museum for the last ten
years, is unquestionable; and incontestably proves the direct in
flucnce of Greek art on the architecture of India, throughout the
whole period of the culmination of Buddhism in India. I n the
Cashmere temples, which were all built between the fall of Bud-
dhism and the rise of Mahommedanism, the Greek influence was
still very marked. -Nowhere in Cashmere," says Mr. Fergtisson,
do we find any trace of the bracket capital of the Hindus, while
the Done or ^/-Doric column is found everywhere throughout
the valley in temples dating from the eighth to the twelfth century
a. ■ K Ind,rectly also Greek art has probably influenced the archi-
tectural and other arts of India, through the Sassanian art of
Persia. From the Mahommedan conquest of India the further
development of Buddhist art is to be traced chiefly beyond India
in Tibet, Burma, and China, in which countries Buddhism has
prevailed without any interruption for more than 2 ooo years
among races of mankind closely allied to the Turanian population
of the Gangetic valley, who first evolved the religion of Buddha
and spread it, with its characteristic architecture, over South-
Eastern and Eastern Asia. It would be interesting to trace the
influence of the introduction of Buddhism into America in the
fourth or fifth century a.d. on the architecture of Mexico.

The earliest illustrations of the Buddhistic architecture of India
are the edict pillars [stambhas or lots] of Asoka. The best
known is that at Delhi. The most complete is that which was
found m l837 at Allahabad, which, in addition to the Asoka
inscriptions, contains one by Samudra Gupta, a.d. 380-400,
and another by Jehangir, a.d. i6 o S . Its shaft is thirty-three feet
an length, and three feet in diameter at the base, diminishing to
two feet two inches at the summit. It has lost its crowning
ornament, which was, Mr. Fergusson says, most probably a
Buddh.stic emblem, the trisula, or a wheel, or lion; but the

ii2 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

necking still remains, and is almost a literal copy of the honey-
suckle and palmette [knop and flower] pattern of the Greeks.
The ornament again occurs on a pillar at Sankissa, between
Muttra and Kanouj, surmounting its Persepolitan capital, which
supports the figure of an elephant. In both figures the palmette
is distinctly of the Assyrian form. Another pillar, with a similar
capital, at Bettiah in Tirhut, bears a lion. In this instance, how-
ever, the honeysuckle and palmette ornament is replaced by a line
of geese, going round the top of the capital in single file. The two
pillars at Erun, and the iron pillar at Delhi, although similar to
those just described, seem to Mr. Fergusson to belong to the age of
the Guptas, in the fourth century a.d., ana to be dedicated not to
Buddhism, but to the Vaishnava faith. The Asoka hits or stamblias
stood in front of or in connexion with a stupa, or Buddhistic
building of some sort, which has since disappeared. At Karli,
in front of the rock Buddhist chaitya or assembly hall, dating from
b.c. 78, a pillar stands, surmounted by four lions, which once, in
Mr. Fergusson's opinion, bore a chakra or wheel in metal. A
corresponding pillar probably once stood on the opposite side
bearing some similar emblem, such as the trisu/a. Two pillars
are still in these positions in front of the cave at Kenheri, dating
from the early years of the fifth century, which is an exact but
debased copy of the great Karli cave. There are two built
pillars among the stupas of the Cabul valley, known as the sarkh
miliar, and the minar chakru They are ascribed by the traditions
of the place to Alexander, but are undoubtedly Buddhistic monu-
ments, and are meant to be copies of the pillars of Persepolis.

The relic and monumental mounds [stupas or topes'] at Bhilsa
[Sanchi], Bharhut, and Amravati, and at Manikyola, in the
Panjab, between the Indus and Jhilum, are all of a similar ground
plan and elevation. They are hemispherical mounds of masonry,
surrounded by a double railing, the entrance through the inner
railing being by four projecting gateways or torans facing the four
cardinal points. At the top of the dome was a square platform,

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

113

in the centre of which stood a four square altar-like structure
called by Indian architects a Tee, surmounted by an umbrella,
and surrounded by a decorative railing, with garlands and streamers
hanging from it. A course of sculptured stone also went com-
pletely round the base of the dome. The torans or gateways are
formed of two upright pillars, held together at the top by three
crossbeams of stone, which project far beyond the side pillars,
and are all carved elaborately. Each toran is surmounted by
pinnacles bearing the usual Buddhist's symbols, the trisula, the
wheel, and the lion, representing the Buddhistic triad of Buddha,
the Law, and the Congregation. The ground-plan of these stupas
also, with the return railings of the four projecting entrances, forms
a gigantic swastika ["auspicious"], the mystic cross [filfot] of the
Buddhists. This is the usual style of the earlier relic mounds.
" No one can, I fancy," observes Mr. Fergusson, " hesitate in
believing that the Buddhist dagoba [i.e. dhatu, 'relic/ and
garbha, 'shrine,' and corrupted by Europeans to 'pagoda'] is
the direct descendant of the sepulchral tumulus of the Turanian
races, whether found in Etruria, Lydia, or among the Scyths of
the northern steppes."

The mound erected by Kaniska, a.d. 10-50, near Peshawur,
the ancient Gandhara, has since disappeared, but from the descrip-
tions of it given by Fa-Hian, a.d. 400, and Hiouen-Thsang, a.d.
600, it was evidently similar in character to those of Sanchi and
Bharhut. The Jelalabad topes or stupas, the dates of which extend
from early in the Christian era, or a little before it, to the seventh
century, are all taller in proportion to their breadth than those
found in other parts of India, except the tope of the " Deer
Park " at Sarnath, near Benares, attributed by General Cunning-
ham to the sixth century and by Mr. Fergusson to the later years
of the tenth. The celebrated shrine at Budda Gaya is "a straight-
lined pyramidal nine-storeyed temple of the sixth century . .
unlike anything else we find in India before or afterwards, but
probably the parent of many nine storeyed towers found beyond

ii4 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

the Himalayas, both in China and elsewhere " [Fergusson, History
of Indian and Eastern Architecture, p. 70]. The Jarasanda ka
Baithak tower in Bengal probably dates about a.d. 500.

The rock-cut assembly halls, or chaityas of the Buddhists,
are found chiefly in Western India, where the trap formation of
the country naturally suggested their excavation. Nine-tenths
of the chaityas known have been found in Bombay. Only two
groups, at Bihar and Cuttack, exist in Bengal, and two or three
insignificant groups in Afghanistan and the Panjab, and one in
Madras at Mahabalipur. In date they range from the third
century B.C to the eighth a.d. The chaityas excavated in the
neighbourhood of Rajagriha, in Bihar, bear inscriptions by Asoka
in the twelfth and nineteenth years of his reign. In Bombay, Mr.
Fergusson fixes B.C 129 as the date of the beginning of the
Nassik caves ; dating before them those of Bhaja [four miles south
of the great Karli cave] and Bedsa [ten or eleven miles south
of Karli]. The four chaityas at Ajanta and the Viswakarma
hall at Ellora and the caves at Dhamnar, halfway between Kotah
and Ujjain, were excavated probably at different dates between
the fourth and sixth centuries a.d. The great Karli cave we have
seen dates from b.c. 78, and the cave at Kenheri from the
beginning of the fifth century. One of the most striking features,
of all these caves is the peaked arch over the facades, and door
and window fronts, which is identical in character with an ogle,
pointed arch of the facade of the church of St. Mark at Venice,
and obviously copied from an original wooden form. The only
built chaitya, or Buddhist assembly hall, known in India is at
Sanchi.

Buddhist monastery buildings, or viharas {sanga-haramas\
are found in connexion with the chaitya caves at Kenheri, Nassik,
Ajanta, Ellora, and Dhumar, and also at Bagh [150 miles north-
ward of Ajanta] and Junir [half-way between Nassik and Poona]
m Western India; at Jamalgiri, Takht-i-Bhai, and Shah Dehri, in
connexion with the Gandhara tope in the Panjab ; and at Udayageri,

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

five miles from Bhuvaneshwar, near Cuttack, in Orissa. These
are all rock-cut monasteries, consisting of simple cells, ranged
round a more or less rectangular court, and presenting few archi-
tectural features beyond the pillars and arches of a portico or
arcade where it existed. There was, however, Mr. Fergusson
believes, a structural vihara in five or more storeys, the original
of all the temples in Southern India. The great pyramidal rath,
in five storeys, at Mahabalipur [" city of the great Bali," generally
known as " the seven Pagodas "], thirty-five miles south of Madras,
probably correctly represents, in his opinion, such a structure.

The Buddhistic style was succeeded by the Jaina. The first com-
plete specimen of Jaina architecture we meet with is in the eleventh
century at Mount Abu. This is not inconsistent with the fact that
General Cunningham has lately found some Jaina statues at Muttra
of a.d. 177. No doubt Jainas did exist and build temples during
the whole of the interval between the second and the eleventh cen-
turies. If we could trace back Jaina architecture continuously from
about a.d. 1000, when we at last lose sight of true Buddhist archi-
tecture, and if we could trace Buddhist architecture continuously
down to a.d. 1000, we should find the former gradually develop-
ing from the latter ; not that the former has wholly grown out of
the latter, but that both had also their origin in an older style,
more Turanian than either, the Greek, and Sassanian influence
on which has been transmitted to the Jaina architecture through
the Buddhist. The characteristic feature of the Jaina buildings
is the horizontal archway which completely relieves any wall
through which it gives passage from the strain of the outward
thrust of a true radiating arch. The bracket form of capital is
also largely introduced in Jaina buildings for the first time in
Indian architecture. The ground-plan of the Jaina temples is
shewn by the temple of Aiwalli [circa a.d. 6 S o], in Dharwar, in
Western India, to be derived from the Buddhist chaitxa. It is
identical with the ground-plan of the structural Chaitya at Sanchi,
but there is a doorway through the circular apse at the end, for*

1 2

n6 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

in the Jaina temple it does not entomb a relic, but covers an image
to which the worshippers must have access ; and a thickening
of the apse wall to enable it to carry the tower, marking the posi-
tion of the image in place of the light wooden roof of the Buddhist
structural assembly hall. If from the temple at Aiwalli we pass to
the neighbouring one at Pittadkul, built probably two centuries
later [i.e. circa a.d. 850], we find that the circular apse of the
Buddhists has entirely disappeared, and the cell has become the
base of a square tower, as it remained ever afterwards. The nave
of the chaitya has become a well-defined mantapa or porch, in
front of but distinct from the cell, and these two features, in an
infinite variety of forms, are the essential elements of the plans of
Jaina and Hindu temples of all subsequent ages.

The sikra, or tower, called also the vimana, is a peculiarity
common to both Jaina and Hindu architecture in Northern
India. In the ordinary Jaina temples, the image is invariably
placed in a square cell, which receives its light from the doorway
only. It seems also an invariable rule, that the presence and
position of the presiding idol should be indicated externally by
a tower, and that though square, or nearly so, in plan, it should
have a curvilinear outline. The upper part of these towers over-
hangs the base, and bend inwards toward the top, which is
surmounted by a melon-shaped member called the amalika, from
its supposed resemblance to the fruit of the Phyllanthus Emblica.
But it is probably derived from the fruit of the lotus, through the
Indian water vessel or lota. The northern Jaina style is seen
principally in the beautiful Jaina « cities of temples " at Palatina
and Girnar, in Gujarat, and at Mount Abu, the chief peak of the
Aravah range, where the sacred Nucki Talao ["pearl lake"] is one
of the loveliest gems of architecture in all India ; and at Parswanth,
the h,ghest point of the Bengal range of hills, south of Rajmahal.
Ihere are ruins of great Jaina temples at Gwalior, at Khajuraho,
i.S mi es westward of Allahabad, at Gyraspore, near Bhilsa,
>n Central India, at Amwah, near Ajanta, and at Chitore, in

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

117

Rajputana, where the noble nine- storey ed pagoda was erected as a
iaya stambha^ or "tower of victory," to commemorate the victory
of the Rajput raja Khambo over Mahmud of Malwa, a.d. 1439.
The Indra cave at Elora is a Jaina structure, dating from before
a.d. 750. There are very extensive modern Jaina temples at Sona-
ghur, in Bundelkhand, at Delhi, and at Ahmadabad in Gujarat.

In Southern India there are two classes of Jaina temples,
called bettus and bastis. The bettus contain, not images of a
Tirthankar, but of Gomata Raja, though who he was and why
worshipped no one knows. His colossal images are probably the
survival of a vague local tradition of Gautama Buddha. Only three
are known. The bastis are ordinary Jaina temples dedicated to
the Tirthankars, and those at Sravana Belgula are the grandest
examples of Jaina architecture in all India. They are all of the
Dravidian stjle, and the vima/ias, or towers, arc surmounted
with a small dome, instead of the amalaka ornament of the
northern sikras. It may be a vain speculation, says Mr. Fer-
gusson, but it seems impossible to look at this group of temples
and not be struck by their resemblance to the temples of Babylonia.
The same division into storeys with their cells, the backward
position of the temple itself, the panelled or pilastered basement,
are all points of resemblance it seems difficult to regard as purely
accidental. All these domed and pillared temples of the
Jainas, whatever indirect influences they may have received from
other sources, Mr. Fergusson traces back directly to the storeyed
monasteries of the Buddhists. The temples and priests' tombs at
Mudbidri, in Canara, must owe their literal Tibetan character
to some direct connexion, at the period of their construction,
between Tibet and Southern India. They resemble the wooden
temples of Dungri, said to be 600 years old, figured in Calvert's
Kulu, and seem to suggest a clue to the origin of all the towered
Hindu temples in some primitive wooden type indigenous to
the Deodar valleys of the inner Himalayas. The Cashmerian
temples seem to be a natural dissection of the Hindu temple

n8 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

forms into their primitive Mongolian and Graeco-Roman elements.
For Jaina architecture is one of the sources of all Hindu styles,
Dravidian, Chalukyan, or Indo-Aryan, the chief difference be-
tween them being, that while the Jaina temple is always twelve
pillared, the Hindu temple when pure in style is absolutely astylar.
The Indo-Aryan style had indeed an independent centre of
origin, but it never developed into a thoroughly original Brah-
manical style. No temples are mentioned in the Vedas, and so
long as the Vedic religion remained there were no temples built.
It was only when it was corrupted by the Turanian and Dravidian
converts to it that the Hindus began to require temples. But
between the fall of Buddhism and the advent of the Mahommedans,
the Jainas had stepped in with a ready-made style, and the fol-
lowers of Vishnu and Siva having had no time to develop an
independent style of their own before it was too late, were forced
to adopt that of their religious rivals.

Of the three varieties of Brahmanical architecture, the Dravidian
style prevails in the Dakhan, south of the Kistna, the Chalukyan
between the Kistna and Mahanuddi, and the Indo-Aryan in
Hindustan.

The Dravidian temple is distinguished by its rectangular
ground-plan and storeyed pyramidal tower 5 the Chalukyan, by its
star-like ground plan and pyramidal tower ; and the Indo-Aryan
by its square ground-plan, and curvilinear Sikra or tower. In
the Dravidian style, the temple almost invariably includes, beside
the vimana, or towered shrine : the mantapa or porch leading to
the shrine ; the choultri or pillared hall ; numerous other build-
ings 5 elegant sta?nbhas or pillars, bearing the images or flags of
the gods, or numberless lamps all connected with the temple
worship and service ; tanks and gardens, and avenues of palms
and sacred trees : and all these various portions are surrounded
by the temple enclosure, with its grand gopuras or gateways.
The architectural effect therefore of such temples as those of Tan-
jore, Tiruvalur, Siringham, Chillambaram, Rameswaram, Madura,

THE HINDU PANTHEON,

119

Tinnevelly, Combaconum, Conjeveram, Vellore, Perur, and Vija-
yanagar, is most imposing. There is nothing in Europe that can
be compared with their grandeur and solemnity, and for parallels
to them we must go back to ancient Egypt and Assyria, and the
temple at Jerusalem. The rock-cut Kylas at Ellora was executed by
southern Dravidians, either the Cheras or Cholas, who had sway
there during the eclipse of the Chalukyas between a.d. 75c and 950.

The noblest example of the Chalukyan style is the great temple
of Hallabid, the old capital of the Rajput Ballalas of Mysor.
Unfortunately, it was never finished, having been stopped by the
Mahommedan conquest a.d. 1310. It is a double temple. The
building is raised on a terrace from five feet to six feet in height ;
on this stands a frieze of elephants, 2,000 in number, following all
the sinuosities of the star-like ground plan. Above this is a frieze
of lions, then a band of scrollwork of infinite beauty and variety
of design ; over which is a frieze of horsemen, and then another
scroll, over which is a frieze representing the conquest of Sanka by
Rama. Then succeed two friezes, one above the other, of celestial
beasts and celestial birds ; and above these a cornice of scroll-
work, bearing a rail, divided into panels, each containing two
figures, and over these are windows of pierced slabs of stone,
divided at regular intervals, marked by the abutments of the
temple by groups five feet six inches in height, of the gods and
heavenly Apsarases of the Hindu pantheon. Above this would
have risen, if the temple had been finished, the pyramidal towers
of the structure. The Chalukyan style is seen also in the
temple of Kait Iswara at Hallabid, and the temples of Som-
nathpur and Baillur, both in Mysore j and in those of Buchropully,
not far from Hydrabad, and of Hammoncondah, or Warangal,
also in the Nizam's dominion. The Dasyu-Aryan style is found
in its greatest purity in Orissa. Among the 500 or 600 original
shrines of Bhuvaneshwar not a pillar is to be found, and those
added to the porches of the temples at Bhuvaneshwar and Puri
are of the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. Sometimes there are

120

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

gateways, but they are very subordinate features, and there
are no enclosures as in the South. That two peoples inhabiting
the same country, and worshipping the same gods, under the
same Brahmanical priesthood, should have developed and ad-
hered to two such dissimilar styles, shews clearly, as Mr. Fergusson
points out, how much race has to do with architecture.

There is nothing in Buddhist, or any other architecture at all
like the curvilinear square sika or tower of the Indo-Aryan
temples in Hindustan. It does not seem to be derived from
any form which can as yet be recognised as its source.

" I have looked longer," writes Mr. Fergusson, « and perhaps
thought more on this problem than on any other of its class con-
nected with Indian architecture ... and its real solution will
probably be found in the accidental discovery of old temples, so
old as to betray in their primitive rudeness the secret we are now
guessing at in vain." He indicates that it is in the great table-
land of Central India, from which the Soane, and Mahanuddi,
and Narbadda, all spring, one of the principal seats of the
aboriginal tribes of India, and to which the highest traditional
sanctity is attached, that the temple will be found which will
reveal the origin of the Dasyu- Aryan temple style. Beside the
great temple of Bhuvaneshwar, the "black pagoda" of Kanaruc
and the temple of Jagannatha at Puri, are remarkable Orissan
examples of the Indo-Brahmanical style. After them, the
oldest and most characteristic example of this style is the temple
of Pittadkul, near Badami, in the Dharwar district of the Bombay
Presidency. There are also three Brahmanical rock-cut temples
at Badam., the age of which Mr. Fergusson places between
a.d. 500 and 750, or synchronously with the Indo-Aryan
port.on of the series of Buddhist, Jaina, and Indo-Aryan and
Dravdian caves at Mora; and another rock-cut temple at Dhum-
nar ,n Rajputana, the Buddhistic excavations of which place have
been alre ady noticed. The Brahmanical temple at Dhumnar
* the only one example known in which the Dasyu-Aryan

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

121

architects attempted to rival the Dravidian by introducing a mono-
lithic exterior. It is not an interior excavation simply like
that at Badami, but a temple cut bodily out of the rock. The
Brahmanical excavations at Elephanta, near Bombay, also belong
to the eighth century.

There are many splendid structural temples of the so-called
Indo-Aryan style in Central or Northern India, at Gwalior, Khaju-
raho, Udaipur, Benares, and Bindraband ; and one of a remarkable
aberrant form at Kantonagar near Dinajpur. The peculiar
curved arch seen in pavilions connected with temples along
the banks of the Ganges, and in the civil architecture generally
of Northern India, is derived from the curvilinear roof which
the Bengalis have learned to give their houses, by bending
the bambus used as a support for the thatch, or tiles. At the
South Kensington museum the same curved form is seen in the
roof of a model shrine of Byzantine work.

I have borrowed so copiously from what Mr. Fergusson has
written on the architectural history of Hindu temples because
the domestic and foreign influences which affect the arts of a
country are always most satisfactorily traced in its architec-
ture. Those also who are familiar with the decorative details of
the art manufactures of India will recognise a distinct Dravidian
style marked by the use of swami ornament. There are other dis-
tinct styles. One marked by the knop and flower pattern is called
Saracenic, but I prefer to call it Aryan, because the use of its
characteristic ornamentation was simply revived in India by the
Persianised Arabs, Afghans, and Mongols. Another presents
the archaic forms of ornament found on the jewelry and other
art-work of central India, and Orissa, and parts of Bengal. It is
a purely indigenous style, and yet quite distinct from the style
prevailing among the so-called aboriginal Turanian tribes of
the inner Himalayas, the decorative forms of which are often
quite Chinese. It does not seem possible as yet to classify
any of these styles systematically; but Mr. Fergusson's

i22 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

grouping of the temple architecture of India suggests a path by
which the student of the minor arts of India may be led to an
analogous classification of them. The meaning of such terms
as Indian and Aryan must, however, be first decided. The chief
Aryan influence on the arts of India has been that of the force of a
superior intellect, which gives to all forms, whencesoever derived,
the universal expression, which is the distinguishing mark of
Indian art. The Aryan influence has reached India through the
Greeks, through Persia, and through the immemorial commerce of
India with the West, but above all from the Vedic Aryas, through
the Brahmanical Hindus : a race formed in the south by admixture
with Dravidians, in the north-east with Turanians, in the north-
west with Scythians, and in central and other inaccessible parts of
India with what seem to be the true aboriginal peoples of the
peninsula.

The Hindus themselves classify their temples according to
the idols worshipped in them. The ma?idira is dedicated to
the lingam, and is double-roofed. The deula is sacred to
Jagannatha, and has an iron image of Garuia on the pinnacle.
The trisula on the pinnacle distinguishes a temple of Siva, and
a wheel one of Vishnu. The pancha-raina [" five gems "] temple
has four smaller turrets at the corners of the square cell from
which the central tower springs, and is dedicated to Vishnu in
his various forms of Krishna. The nava-ratna [" nine gems TL
also a Vaishnava temple, has a double roof like the mandira, with
four turrets on one roof, and four at the corners of the central
tower, which forms the other. The Vishnu-jnandira and the
Chandi-mandira are small flat-roofed temples, or cells, sacred to
Vishnu, and Durga or Kali, respectively. The yora-bangala is
made like two thatched houses placed side by side, and is used
for different gods. The rasa-rnancha is an octagonal temple with
eight turrets, sacred to Krishna. The dola-mancha is a similar
building. The devalaya consists of a number of temples built
in a square.

[Plate O.

SACRIFICIAL UTENSILS.

I. Shell for pouring libations. 2. Brass and Copper Sruvas or Spoons. 3. Lota, or Ewer.

4 Sampatni. 5. Katori. 6. A smaller Katori. 7. Tali. 8. Arghya Patra

THE HINDU PANTHEON. 123

Sacrificial Utensils.

The articles [upacharas] used in the worship [puja] of the gods
are too numerous to be systematically named, but the principal
of them are illustrated on the mythological plates N and O.
Numbers 1 and 2, plate N, are different forms of the nandi-linga,
or naga-nandi-linga image. The pyramid of five balls, often seen
in these symbols, is the pancha-pinda. The four balls forming
the base of the pyramid represent Vishnu, Surya, Parvati, and
Ganesa, and the fifth ball at the apex Siva. Sometimes Vishnu
is represented by the saligrama, Ganesa by the binlang, and
Surya by the surya-kanta [see" Sacred Stones "]. No. 3 is a sinha-
sana, or throne on which the idol is placed. No. 4 is the ganta, or
bell, which is rung to call its attention to the worshipper ; and
No. 5, the saiikha, or conch shell, which is blown for the same
purpose \ and also at the conclusion of certain ceremonies. No.
6 is one of the innumerable forms of the aratika, or lamp, which
is waved in a circular manner before the idol ; and 7 and 8 are
dhupdans, or incense-holders, for censing it. Sometimes an
artistically pierced and mounted shell is used as the censer. The
darpan is the looking-glass for reflecting the image of the idol after
it has been washed and anointed. Number 1, plate O, is the shell,
resting on its mystic tripod, used for pouring water on the idol.
No. 2. plate O, are two sruvas, or spoons, the larger generally of
brass, being used for lustrations, and the smaller, generally of
copper, for offering water to the idol to drink. These spoons are
often very beautiful in form and decoration, being ornamented
with the figures of the gods to whose worship they are consecrated.
No. 3 is a lota, or ewer, for holding the water of the sacrificial
service. The special vessels for specially holding Ganges water
are generally flattened from side to side, or from above or below.
The ghata is a large earthen vessel used in the worship of many
of the gods, particularly of Varuna and Lakshmi. It is filled

i2 4 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA,

with Ganges water, and twigs of sacred plants, and invoked at
Varuna, or Lakshmi, or any other god or goddess to whom it may
be consecrated. Numbers 4 and 5, plate O, are copper vessels
used in offering flowers. The larger is called sampatm, and the
smaller katori. No. 17 is a tali, or brass tray, for offering
fruits and sweetmeats. A larger tray for holding all the offerings
made to an idol, is called varanadala. No. 8 is the mystical
arghya patra, or cornucopia to hold the offerings made to
the idols of til [sesamum] seed, Kusa grass, dub or durva
grass, flowers, and sandalwood powder, or of water sprinkled
with colored and perfumed powders. The arghya patra, the
sruva [spoon] and lota, called in its religious use the prokshani-
patra, for holding the water of lustration, are the three necessary
utensils for the due performance of all worship.

The mystic arghya may be established in any object of a
similar shape, and the arghya patra figured in plate O, apart
from its religious use, is called a kosa. A spoon of similar shape
something like an English tablespoon, with the handle cut short,
called kusi, is often used instead of the sruva for lustrations;
and a round open bowl, called kwida, for holding water, in place
of the ordinary lota. Almost any flower may be offered to the
idols, but red flowers are preferred in the worship 01 Siva,
Parvati, Ganesa, and Hanuman ; and yellow in the worship of
Vishnu and Krishna, and their consorts [see " Sacred Plants"].
A necklace of tulst seeds or stalks is worn by the worshippers
of Vishnu ; of rudraksh seeds by those ©f Siva ; of kamal seeds
by those of Ganesa [see "Sacred Plants "]; and of crystal in the
worship of Surya.

The asana is a carpet or seat on which the worshipper sits
while performing any ceremony. The Sri is a representation of
Mount Mem in the form of a disc from which rises a cone,
crowned with the lotus bud. It is ornamented with flowers and
birds in the manner of the hawthorn blossom Dresden china
vases, and stamped with the auspicious sign of the triangle. It

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

125

is a mystic representation of the generative principle of nature.
The khadga, or sacrificial sword, is said to have been begotten
by Brahma. It is a long cleaver, with a deep blade nearly the
whole length of the handle, broadened, with a curved outline,
to double its depth at the end, where an eye is painted in red
and black on each side.

Evil Influence of the Puranas on Indian Art.

The mythology of the Puranas is not an essential element in
Hindu art, which, however, it has profoundly influenced. It lends
itself happily enough to decorative art ; but has had a fatal effect in
blighting the growth of true pictorial and plastic art in India. The
monstrous shapes of the Puranic deities are unsuitable for the
higher forms of artistic representation ; and this is possibly why
sculpture and painting are unknown, as fine arts, in India. Where
the Indian artist is left free from the trammels of the Puranic my-
thology he has frequently shewn an instinctive capacity for fine art.
The ancient Buddhist sculptures of Sanchi, Bharhut, and Amra-
vati display no mean skill, and some of the scenes from Buddha's
life, in which he is represented in purely human shape free from
all disfigurement, are of great beauty. Many also of the more
popular scenes of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, such as the
marriage and honeymoon of Rama and Sita, and Krishna's
courtship of Radha and Rukmini, are free from the intrusion of
the Puranic gods, and the common bazaar paintings of them often
approach the ideal expression of true pictorial art. They shew
little knowledge of perspective, but tell their story naturally ;
while a certain characteristic symmetry of composition, borrowed
from decorative art, has its legitimate attraction.

Admirably though the unnatural figures of the Puranic gods,
derived from the Dravidian and Turanian races of India, sometimes
shew in detailed ornamentation, yet their employment for this
purpose is in direct defection from the use of the lovelier, nobler

126 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

forms of trees and flowers. The latter forms were introduced
in the decorative arts by the Aryan race wherever it went; and
after being comparatively suppressed for centuries in India, as
they still are in the South, were again brought into fashion by
the Afghans and Mongols from Persia ; where this charming style
of religious symbolism, springing from the love and worship of
nature intuitive in the Aryas, has prevailed from the remotest
antiquity, and reached its perfected development in the time of
the Sassanian dynasty, circa a.d. 226 — 641.

The Antiquity of Indian Art.

How intimately the Hindus live in their sacred writings, was
remarkably illustrated during the Prince of Wales's visit to India
in 1875-6, when the Raja of Jaipur deliberately planned the
decorations of his royal city and the ceremonial of the Prince's
reception, from the descriptions of Ayodhya, and the court of the
Maharaja Dasaratha, in the Ramayana. In his recent poem, The
Light of Asia, Mr. Edwin Arnold, C.S.I., has given a series of
pictures of the city, and court, and country life of the Buddhistic
state of Kapilavastu 2000 years ago, the fascination of which
has been felt by all who know India. The King Suddhodana,
on the birth of his son Gautama, Prince Siddhartha, gave order
that Kapilavastu should rejoice : —

" Therefore the ways were swept,
Rose odours sprinkled in the streets, the trees
Were hung with lamps and flags, while merry crowds
Gaped on the sword players and posturers,
The jugglers, charmers, swingers, rope walkers,
The nautch girls in their spangled skirts and bells,
That chime light laughter round their restless feet ;
The masquers wrapped in skins of bear and deer,
The tiger tamers, wrestlers, quail fighters,
Beaters of drum, and twanglers of the wire,
Who make the people happy by command.
Moreover from afar came merchantmen,
Bringing, on tidings of his birth, rich gifts,

THE HINDU PANTHEON. 127

In golden trays ; goat shawls, and nard and jade,
Turkises " evening sky " tint, woven webs.

* * *
Homage from tribute cities."

One day the king takes the young prince out for a drive
through the suburbs of the city.

" So they rode
Into a land of wells and gardens, where,
All up and down the rich red loam, the steers
Strained their strong shoulders in the creaking yoke,
Dragging the ploughs ; the fat soil rose and rolled
In smooth dark waves back from the plough ; who drove
Planted both feet upon the leaping share,
To make the furrow deep.

* « *
Elsewhere were sowers who went forth to sow ;

* * *
The kites sailed circles in the golden air.
About the painted temples peacocks flew,
The blue doves cooed from every well, far off
The village drums beat for some marriage feast ;
All things spoke peace and plenty, and the Prince
Saw and rejoiced."

Later the Prince drives through the town itself.

" Therefore the stones were swept, and up and down
The water carriers sprinkled all the streets
From squirting skins, the housewives scattered fresh
Red powder on their thresholds, strung new wreaths, 1
And trimmed the tulsi-bush before their doors.
The paintings on the walls were heightened up
With beral brush, the trees set thick with flags,
The idols gilded ; in the four- went ways,
Surya-deva and the great gods shone
Mid shrines of leaves ; so that the city seemed
A capital of some enchanted land.

1 These are strings of alternate leaves and flowers, or of pieces of many
colored silk or cloth, richly embroidered, which are hung across the tops of
Hindu doors on birthdays, and other festive occasions.

128 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

* * * * While the Prince
Came forth in painted car, which two steers drew,
Milkwhite, with swinging dewlaps, and huge humps
Wrinkled against the carved and lacquered yoke,

* • * *
So passed they through the gates, a joyous crowd,
Thronging about the wheels, whereof some ran
Before the oxen, throwing wreaths, some stroked
Their silken flanks, some brought them rice and cakes.
All crying ' Jail Jai!> for our noble Prince."

In these word- pictures, Mr. Arnold is scrupulously faithful to
the text of the Hindu epics, and the almost contemporary
Buddhist books known as the Tri-Pitaka, or " three caskets."
Yet they are as minutely and accurately true of modern India.
Those who know Bombay and Poona will think that Mr. Arnold is
describing the bazaar of Bombay, or the streets of Poona,
and the cultivated country round that fair Maratha city, before
the wide plain beyond is reached j while others familiar with
Lahore, or Benares, or Tanjore, will believe that he intends one
or other of those cities. The same is true of the descriptions
given by Mr. Arnold of marriage and funeral ceremonies, sacri-
fices, and village sports and feasts ; the simple explanation being
that the life and arts of India, as in a lesser degree of the East
generally, are still the life and arts of antiquity. This is their
supreme charm. It is said that the continuity of social life, and
with it of the arts, in India has been owing to the isolation
of that vast peninsula, which is supposed to be separated by the
Himalayas and the sea from other countries. But it is not so.
India lies in the track of the great commerce which has always
subsisted between the East and West, and, excepting the Bhils,
Gonds, Kols, Khonds, and other savage aborigines, it is through
the Himalayas and Suliman mountains that it has received
its entire population, Turanian, Dravidian, Aryan, Scythic,
Afghan, and Mongol [Turkoman]. Through the Afghan passes lie
the nearest routes of the export trade of Central Asia to the sea;
and through these passes it is that the Brahmanical Hindus were

THE HINDU PANTHEON.

1 29

successively subjected by the Scythic Nagas, Afghans, and Mongols
[Turkomans], and invaded by the Persians under Darius, b.c. 518,
by the Greeks under Alexander, b.c. 312, and under Seleucus, b.c.
312, and again bythe Persians under Naushirvan, a.d. 521-579, and
under Nadir Shah, a.d. 1730. Under Ahmad Shah Abdali, India
was again invaded bythe Afghans six times between a.d. 1748 and
1757- The Scythians, who would seem to have first entered India
seven hundred years b.c, were not finally driven out until their
great defeat at Karur by Vicramaditya, which Mr. Fergusson fixes
at a.d. 544. The ascendency of Buddhism for a thousand years
in India was perhaps connected with their protracted domina-
tion. So far from the Himalayas isolating India from the great
cradle of the Aryan and other human races in Turkestan, it is an
historical fact that whenever Central Asia has had a strong ruler,
he has virtually ruled in India also. More perhaps than any other
country has India been subjected to foreign rule, and overrun and
devastated from end to end by armed invasion ; and as a con-
sequence its population is wonderfully mixed and receptive of
foreign influences. Indian art has borrowed freely from Turanian,
Dravidian, Greek, Sassanian, Mongol, and European sources. It
might indeed be plausibly argued that there is nothing original in
Indian art, nor indeed anything older in its minor arts than the six-
teenth century, when the Mogol empire was established by Baber.
But the assimilative power of the Hindus is as remarkable as their
receptive power, and in the hands of their hereditary craftsmen
everything they copy in time assumes the distinctive expression of
Indian art. This is really owing to the homogeneous unity given
to the immense mixed population [about 250,000,000] of India
by the Code of Manu. It is a population of literally " teeming
millions," nearly all of one way of life and thought, and every-
thing brought into contact with it is at length subdued to its
predominant nature.

Moreover, the Code of Manu has secured in the village

130 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

system of India a permanent endowment of the class of hereditary
artisans and art workmen, who of themselves constitute a vast
population ; and the mere touch of their fingers, trained for 3000
years to the same manipulations, is sufficient to transform whatever
foreign work is placed for imitation in their hands, " into some-
thing rich and strange " and characteristically Indian.

PART II.

THE MASTER HANDICRAFTS OF INDIA.

It is impossible in describing the handicrafts of India to
follow the classification usually adopted of the arts and in-
dustries of Europe, based as it is on the broad distinction that
must always be drawn between art and industry, when industrial
productions are no longer hand wrought, but manufactured by
machines. Thus the very word manufacture has in Europe come
at last to lose well nigh all trace of its true etymological meaning,
and is now generally used for the process of the conversion of raw
materials into articles suitable for the use of man by machinery.
Work thus executed, in which the invention and hand of a
cunning workman have had no part, must be classified by itself,
and under the most intricate and elaborate divisions.

In India everything is hand wrought, and everything, down to
the cheapest toy or earthen vessel, is therefore more or less a work
of art. It is not of course meant to rank the decorative art of
India, which is a crystallised tradition, although perfect in form,
with the fine arts of Europe, wherein the inventive genius of the
poet, acting on his own spontaneous inspiration, asserts itself in
true creation. The spirit of fine art is indeed everywhere latent
in India, but it has yet to be quickened into creative operation
It has slept ever since the Aryan genius of the people would
seem to have exhausted itself in the production of the Rama
yana and Mahabharata. But the Indian workman, from the
humblest potter to the most cunning embroiderer in blue and

K 2

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

purple and scarlet [Ex. xxxviii 23], is not the less a true artist,
although he seldom rises above the traditions of his art.

Many separate elements have contributed toward the develop-
ment of the decorative arts of India. There are the simple
archaic forms of the aboriginal negroid tribes who are now found
only in the hills, or in the more inaccessible parts of the upland
plains of Central India; the wild fantastic forms of the Mongoloid
tribes of the Eastern Himalayas and Burmese frontier; the
monstrous swami ornamental forms of the Dravidian races of the
Dakhan ; and the primitive Aryan beast and flower forms of Hin-
dustan^ and revived Aryan knop and flower pattern reintroduced
into India by its Persianised, Afghan, and Mongol [Turkoman],
conquerors. Indian collections are now also seen to be more and
more overcrowded with mongrel articles, the result of the in-
fluences on Indian art of European society, European education,
and above all of the irresistible energy of the mechanical pro-
ductiveness of Birmingham and Manchester. Through all these
means foreign decorative forms are being constantly introduced, and
foreign fashions set ; and so rapidly are they spreading, that there
is a real fear that they may at last irretrievably vitiate the native
tradition of the distinctive arts of India. The worst mischief is
perhaps done by Jhe architecture foisted on the country by the
Government of India, which, being the architecture of the State,
is naturally thought to be worthy of all imitation. The Nawab
of Banawalpur was installed the other day on the throne of his
ancestors, and in anticipation of the auspicious event the Indian
Government built him a palace, which is the ghastliest piece of
bare classicalism it is possible to imagine, even with so many
examples before us in this country of the dissenting chapels and
vestry halls of the last century. And now Holkar, in obvious
emulation of this preposterous production, is building for himself a
vast Italian palace at Indore, which is to cost many lakhs of rupees,
and will be like Trentham, or Buckingham Palace, or anything else
in the world but a habitation meet for kings. This sort of thing

MASTER HANDICRAFTS OF INDIA.

'33

has been going on all over India ever since the establishment of
the British peace in 1803-6 and 1818-19, and is the fountain head
and origin of all the evil we deplore. The natives have, indeed,
a great genius for imitation. Thus Nearchus [Strabo, xv. 1, 67],
producing proofs of their skill in works of art, says that, when
they saw sponges in use among the Macedonians, they imitated
them by sewing hairs, thin threads, and strings inextricably through
flocks of wool, and, after the wool was well felted together, drew
out the hair and thread and strings, when a perfect sponge re-
mained, which they dyed with bright colors. That is exactly
what a native, under a happy inspiration, would do. There
quickly also appeared among Alexander's Indian camp followers
manufacturers of brushes for scrubbing the body, and of vessels
for oil, which they saw the Greeks using.

Terry, in his Voyage to the East Indies, 1655, in describing
the people of India, writes :— " The natives there shew very much
ingenuity in their curious manufactures, as in their silk stuffs,
which they most artificially weave, some of them very neatly
mingled either with silver or gold, or both 3 as also in making
excellent quilts of their stained cloth, or of fresh-colored taffeta
lined with their pintadoes [prints or chintz], or of their satin lined
with taffeta, betwixt which they put cotton wool, and work them
together with silk .... They make likewise excellent carpets
of their cotton wool, in mingled colors, some of them three yards
broad and of a great length. Some other richer carpets they
make all of silk, so artificially mixed as that they lively represent
those flowers and figures made in them. The ground of some
others of their very rich carpets is silver or gold, about which are
such silken flowers and figures most excellently and orderly dis-
posed throughout the whole work. Their skill is likewise ex-
quisite in making of cabinets, boxes, trunks, and standishes
curiously wrought within and without ; inlaid with elephants' 1
teeth or mother-of-pearl, ebony, tortoiseshell, or wire. They
make excellent cups and other things of agate or carnelian, and

134 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

curious they are in cutting of all manner of stones, diamonds as
well as others. They paint staves or bedsteads, chests or boxes,
fruit dishes or large chargers extremely neat, which, when they be
not inlaid as before, they cover the wood, first being handsomely
turned, with a thick gum, then put their paint on most artificially
made of liquid silver or gold or other lively colors which they
use, and after make it much more beautiful with a very clear
varnish put upon it. They are also excellent at limning, and will
copy out any picture they see to the life .... The truth is, that
the natives of that monarchy are the best apes for imitation in the
world, so full of ingenuity that they will make any new thing by
pattern, how hard soever it seem to be done, and therefore it is
no marvel if the natives there make boots, cloths, linen, bands,
cuffs of our English fashion, which are all very much different
from their fashions and habits, and yet make them all exceedingly
neat."— Roe.

The Cashmere trade in shawls has been ruined through th.
quickness with which the caste weavers have adopted the "im
proved shawl patterns" which the French agents of the Paris import
houses have set before them. We therefore incur a great respons-
ibility in attempting to interfere in the direct art education of a
people who already possess the tradition of a system of decoration
founded on perfect principles, which they have learned through
centuries of practice to apply with unerring truth. The great
dread of course is of the general introduction of machinery into
India ; that, just as we are beginning in Europe to understand
what things may be done by machinery and what must be done
by hand work, if art is of the slightest consideration in the matter,
in India, owing to the operation of certain economic causes,
machinery may be gradually introduced for the manufacture of
Us great traditional handicrafts, resulting in an industrial revolu-
tion which, if not directed by an intelligent and instructed public
opinion, and the general prevalence of refined taste, will inevit-
ably throw the decorative art of India into the same confusion of

MASTER HANDICRAFTS OF INDIA. 135

principles, and of their practical application to tfie objects of
daily necessity, in the use of which we should have delight, which
has for three generations been the destruction of decorative art
and of middle-class taste, in England and North-western Europe,
and the United States of America.

The social and moral evils of the introduction of machinery
into India are likely to be still greater. At present the industries
of India are carried on all over the country, although hand-weaving
is everywhere languishing in the unequal competition with Man-
chester and the Presidency Mills. But in every Indian village
all the traditional handicrafts are still to be found at work.

Outside the entrance, on an exposed rise of ground, the here-
ditary potter sits by his wheel moulding the swift revolving clay
by the natural curves of his hands. At the back of the houses,
which form the low irregular street, there are two or three looms
at work in blue and scarlet and gold, the frames hanging between
the acacia trees, the yellow flowers of which drop fast on the
webs as they are being woven. In the street the brass and
copper smiths are hammering away at their pots and pans ; and
further down, in the verandah of the rich man's house, is the
jeweller working rupees and gold mohrs into fair jewelry, gold
and silver earrings, and round tires like the moon, bracelets and
tablets and nose rings, and tinkling ornaments for the feet, taking
his designs from the fruits and flowers around him, or from the
traditional forms represented in the paintings and carvings of the
great temple, which rises over the grove of mangoes and palms
at the end of the street above the lotus-covered village tank. At
half-past three or four in the afternoon the whole street is lighted
up by the moving robes of the women going down to draw water
from the tank, each with two or three water jars on her head •
and so going and returning in single file, the scene glows like
Titian's canvas, and moves like the stately procession of the
Panathenaic frieze. Later the men drive in the mild grey kine
from the moaning jungle, the looms are folded up, the copper-

136

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

smiths are silent, the elders gather in the gate, the lights begin to
glimmer in the fast-falling darkness, the feasting and the music
begin, and the songs are sung late into the night from the Rama-
yana or Mahabharata. The next morning with sunrise, after
simple ablutions and adorations performed in the open air before
their houses, their same day begins again. This is the daily life
going on all over Western Indian in the village communities of
the Dakhan, among a people happy in their simple manners and
frugal way of life, and in the culture derived from the grand
epics of a religion in which they live and move and have
their daily being, and in which the highest expression of their
literature, art, and civilisation has been stereotyped for 2,000
years.

But of late these handicraftsmen, for the sake of whose works
the whole world has been ceaselessly pouring its bullion for 3,000
years into India, and who, for all the marvellous tissues and em-
broidery they have wrought, have polluted no rivers, deformed no
pleasing prospects, nor poisoned any air ; whose skill and indivi-
duality the training of countless generations has developed to the
highest perfection, these hereditary handicraftsmen are being every-
where, gathered from their democratic village communities in
hundreds and thousands to the colossal mills of Bombay, to drudge
in gangs at manufacturing piece goods, in competition with Man-
chester, in the production of which they are no more intellectually
and morally concerned than the grinder of a barrel organ in the
tunes it evolves.

I do not mean to depreciate the proper functions of machines in
modern civilisation, but machinery should be the servant and never
the master of men. It cannot minister to the beauty and plea-
sure of life, and can only be the slave of life's drudgery. It should
be kept rigorously in its place, in India as well as England. When
m England machinery is no longer allowed, by the force of culti-
vated taste and opinion, to intrude into the domain of art manu-
factures which belongs exclusively to the trained mind and hand

MASTER HANDICRAFTS OF INDIA. 137

of individual workmen, wealth will become more equally diffused
throughout society \ and the working classes, through the elevating
influence of their daily work, and the growing respect for their
talent and skill and culture, will at once rise in social, civil, and
political position, raising the whole country, to the highest classes,
with them; and Europe will learn to taste of some of the measure-
less content and happiness in life which is to be still found in the
pagan East, even as it was once found in pagan Greece and
Rome.

The village communities have been the stronghold of the tra-
ditionary arts of India ; and where these arts have passed out of
the villages into the wide world beyond, the caste system of the
Code of Manu has still been their best defence against the taint
and degradation of foreign fashions. The typical Hindu village
consists exclusively of husbandmen ; but as husbandry and manu-
facture cannot exist without each other, the village had to receive
a number of artisans as members of its hereditary governing body.
But they are all " strangers within the gate," who reside in the
village solely for the convenience of the husbandmen on a sort of
service contract. It is a perpetual contract, but in the lapse ot
3,000 years, the artisans have constantly terminated their con-
nexion with a village, or have had to provide for sons in some
other place, and they at once sought their livelihood in the towns
which began to spring up everywhere round the centres of govern-
ment, and of the foreign commerce of the country. It is in this
^way that the great polytechnical cities of India have gradually been
formed. Community of interests would naturally draw together
the skilled immigrants of these cities in trades-unions ; the bonds
of which in India, as was also the case in ancient Egypt, are
rendered practically indissoluble by the force of caste. We learn
from the Bible that already in the earliest times among the
Hebrews numerous trades had developed into separate callings,
such as the goldsmiths, braziers, locksmiths, carpenters, masons',
potters, weavers, and fullers; but it is not until after the Captivity,

138 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

that we find trades-unions flourishing among the Jews who had
settled in Egypt, the land of caste. In the Jews' synagogue at
Alexandria, which was so large that the word Amen at the end of
each prayer had to be signalled by the reader to the vast congreg-
ation, all the different trades-unions sat apart from each other,
and the workers in gold and silver, the coppersmiths and braziers,
the nail and needle-smiths, the ipotters, carpenters, masons, and
weavers, had each their appointed seats. The spirit of trades-
unionism thus spread from Egypt among the Jews of Palestine,
who at last carried it with them into every country in Europe. In
India these trade guilds have also existed from the very beginning
of Hindu civilisation. In the nineteenth chapter of the second
section of the Ramayana, or Ayodhya-Kanda— " Scenes in
Ayodhya "— the inhabitants of that city are represented as going
out in procession with Bharata to seek Rama in the order of the
trade guilds : jewellers, potters, ivory- workers, perfumers, gold-
smiths, weavers, carpenters, braziers, painters, musical instrument-
makers, armourers, curriers, blacksmiths, coppersmiths, makers of
figures, cutters of crystals, glassmakers, inlayers and others ; with
the " chief of a guild " bringing up the rear. It is just such a list
as might be prepared from a census return of the inhabitants of
Ahmedabad in Western India at the present day. It is almost
identical with the list of the trades as given in Surgeon James
Taylor's Sketch of the Topography and Statistics of Dacca, pub-
lished in 1840 [Calcutta].

The trade guilds of the great polytechnical cities of India
are not, however, always exactly coincident with the sectarian
or ethnical caste of a particular class of artisans. Sometimes
the same trade is pursued by men of different castes, and
its guild generally includes every member of the trade it
represents without strict reference to caste. The government
of the guilds or unions is analogous to that of the village com-
munities and castes, that is, by hereditary officers. Each separate
guild is managed by a court of aldermen or maliajans [literally

MASTER HANDICRAFTS OF INDIA.

!39

" great gentlemen "]. Nominally it is composed of all the freemen
of the caste, but a special position is allowed to the set/is, lords, or
chiefs of the guild, who are ordinarily two in number, and hold
their position by hereditary right. The only other office-bearer
is a salaried clerk or gumasta.

Membership in the guild is also hereditary, but new-comers
may be admitted into it on the payment of an entrance fee, which
in Ahmedabad amounts to 2/. for papermakers, and 50/. for tin-
smiths. No unqualified person can remain in or enter a guild.
It is not the practice to execute indentures of apprenticeship, but
every boy born in a working caste of necessity learns his father's
handicraft, and when he has mastered it, at once takes his place
as an hereditary freeman of his caste or trade guild ; his father,
or, if he be an orphan, the young man himself, giving a dinner to
the guild on the occasion. In large cities the guilds command
great influence. The Nagar-Seth, or City Lord of Ahmedabad,
is the titular head of all the guilds, and the highest personage
in the city, and is treated as its representative by the Government.
In ordinary times he does not interfere in the internal affairs
of the guilds, their management being left to the chief alderman
of each separate guild, called the Chautano Seth, or "Lord of the
Market."

Under British rule, which secures the freest exercise of indi-
vidual energy and initiative, the authority of the trade guilds
in India has necessarily been relaxed, to the marked detriment of
those handicrafts the perfection of which depends on hereditary
processes and skill. The overwhelming importations of British
manufactures also is even more detrimental to their prosperity
and influence, for it has in many places brought wholesale ruin on
the hereditary native craftsmen, and forced them into agriculture
and even domestic service. But the guilds by the stubborn
resistance, further stimulated by caste prejudice, which they
oppose to all innovations, still, in their forlorn way continue
to serve a beneficial end in maintaining for probably another

T4o INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

generation the traditional excellence of the sumptuary arts of India
against the fierce and merciless competition of the English manu-
facturers. The latter are condemned by many for fixing the hours
of labour, and the amount of work to be done in their manufac-
tories by strict bylaws, the slightest infringement of which is pun-
ished by severe fines, which are the chief source of their income.
But the object of these rules is to give the weak and unfortunate
the same chance in life as others more favored by nature.
These rules naturally follow from the theocratic conceptions which
have governed the whole organisation of social life in India : and
it is incontrovertible that the unrestricted development of the
competitive impulse in European life, particularly in the pursuit
of personal gain, is absolutely antagonistic to the growth of
the sentiment of humanity, and of real religious convictions
among men.

The funds of the guilds of Western India, where they prevail
chiefly among the Vaishnavas and Jainas of Gujarat, are for the
greater part spent on charities, and particularly charitable hospitals
for sick and helpless domestic animals : and in part also on the
temples of the Maharajas of the Wallabacharya sect of Vaishnavas,
and on guild feasts. A favorite device for raising money is for
the men of a craft or trade to agree on a certain day to shut all
their shops but one. The right to keep open this one is then
put up to auction, and the amount bid goes to the guild fund.
In purely agricultural districts the trades are not organised in
guilds, and the title mahajan is applied simply in social courtesy
to every member of the Vania [" Banyan "], Shravak [Jaina, lay
priest] and Soni [goldsmith] castes. In districts where there are
a considerable number of craftsmen, but all of one caste, the
head of the caste acts also as chief of the guild. It is under this
system that the sumptuary arts of India, as distinguished from its
village arts, were fostered and sustained, until at length the whole
bullion of the Western nations of antiquity and medieval times
was poured into the East in exchange for them. It is impossible

MASTER HANDICRAFTS OF INDIA.

141

to overestimate their effect on the art manufactures of Europe :
and by a natural reaction it is in its sumptuary productions that
the effects of the influence of foreign commerce and foreign con-
quest on India are most explicitly and instructively shewn.

It has, however, been the encouragement given by the great
native princes and chiefs, and the cultivated taste of the common
people, that the sumptuary arts of India have been brought to such
perfection. From the Ayni Akbari, or, Institutes of the Emperor
Akbar [a.d. 1556— 1605], written by Abdul Fazl, Akbar's great
minister, we learn that the Mogol emperors of Delhi maintained
in their palaces skilled workmen in every art of India. It is said
that the Emperor Akbar took a great delight in painting, and
had in his service a large number of artists, in order that they
" might vie with each other in fame, and become eminent by their
productions." Once a week his majesty inspected the performances
of every artist, when in proportion to their merits they were
honored with premiums, and their regular salaries were increased.
In the armoury also the emperor personally superintended the
various weapons which were forged and decorated there, in every
stage of their manufacture. In the workshop of the imperial
wardrobe the manufacturers of every nation were found, and
whatever was made there was carefully kept, and those articles
of which there came in this way to be a superfluity were given
away in presents of honour. Through the attention of the
emperor various new manufactures were established at Delhi.
The skill of the manufacturers increased with their number, and
the cloths of Persia, Europe, and China, became drugs in the
market. The emperor was also very fond of woollen stuffs,
particularly shawls ; and the Ayni Akbari gives a list of all the
varieties made in the palace, which were classified according to
their date, value, colour, and weight. He had a vast establish-
ment of jewellers, inlayers with gold, silver, crystal, and carnelian ;
damascene workers, chiefly for ornamenting arms ; enamellers J
plain workers in gold and silver; pierced workers; embossers';

142 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

"inlayers with little grains of gold, » whose art will be further
noticed in connexion with the modern jewelry of Delhi; makers
of gold and silver lace [suirbaft] for sword-belts, &c. ; engravers
workers m a sort of mello; stone engravers, and lapidaries; and
other artists. Sir John Chardin, who travelled in the East from
1664 to 1670, in his Journal du Voyage [London 1686 •
Amstersdam 1711], tells us that the kings and nobles of Persia
also there maintained, as they still do, manufacturers of all the
arts and trades in their « carconis" {karkhanas\ or workshops.
He compares them to the galleries of the Grand Duke of Florence
and of the Louvre. "They entertain in these places a large
number of excellent master-workmen, who have a salary and
dady rations for all their lives, and are provided with all the
materials for their work. They receive a present and an increase
of salary for every fine work they produce." As also in India
their appointments were hereditary. In the India Museum col-
lection of Jade there is a large engraved bowl, on which a family
in the employ of the emperors of Delhi was engaged for three
generations. It is only in this way that artistic excellence in works
of industry can ever be attained, and it is thus that the finest
enamels, and damascened work, and shawls, are still produced in
Ind.a, in the royal factories of Jaipur, Hyderabad, and Srinagar
Every house in India is likewise a nursery of the beautiful In
the meanest village hut the mother will be found with her daughters
engaged m spinning or weaving ; and in the proudest native houses
of the great polytechnical cities, the mistress of the family, with
her maid-servants, may be seen at all hours of the day em-
bro.denng cloth in colored silks, and silver, and gold thread • re-
minding the visitor of similar household scenes in ancient Rome
before slaves came, during the pampered age of the Oesars, to
be employed in such work. There is thus a universally diffused
popular appreciation of technical skill and taste in workmanship,
which st necessarily have its effect in promoting the unrivalled
reputauon of the h,storical art handicrafts of India.

MASTER HANDICRAFTS OF INDIA.

Besides the village and sumptuary arts there are, as already
observed, the savage arts of the wild tribes ; and thus within the
limits of India proper, that is of the basins of the Indus and
Ganges, and the whole peninsula southward from the Himalayas
to Cape Comorin, we have in almost every district the arts of the
Kulis, Gonds, Konds, Bhils, and other negroid aborigines, of the
Dravidian immigrants into Southern and the Turanian immigrants
into Eastern India, and of its Persianised, Afghan, and Mongol
[Turkoman], conquerors throughout Hindustan, and the more
accessible provinces of the Dakhan. Yet all, whether savage,
Brahmanical, or Mahommedan, are essentially of one generic style,
impressed upon them by the pervading intellectual superiority of
the Vedic Aryas, and distinguishing them in every species and
variety as characteristically Indian arts.

Gold and Silver Plate.

The only mention of gold plate in the Rig Veda is an
allusion to golden cups ; but the references to jewelry are so
numerous, that it is evident the precious metals must have been
known and used in India for drinking vessels, and other domestic
utensils from the first settlement of the Aryas in the Panjab.
Gold is indeed a favorite simile in the Rig Veda for the rising
sun ; and the wheels and yokes of carriages are described as made
of gold. The Ramayana and Mahabharata offer abundant
evidence that in the time when they were compiled in their
present form the Hindus were perfectly familiar with works
executed on the grandest scale in gold. Unfortunately no ancient
objects in the precious metals that can be claimed as authentic
examples of characteristic Indian art have survived the wreck of
time in India ; unless any may still be hid within the shrines of
some of the more sequestered of the great idol temples.

The oldest examples of really ancient gold and silver work
found on Indian soil are the gold casket [Plate i] and silver
patera [Plate 2] belonging to the India Office library, which
have been lent to the Science and Art Department for
exhibition in the India Museum at South Kensington. This
gold casket is an object of the highest interest in connexion with
the history of Indian art. It was found by Mr. Masson about forty
years ago in one of the Buddhist topes, built on the sandstone
slopes which stretch away westward from Jellalabad in the Cabul

[Plate 2.

ANCIENT SILVER PATERA

[Plate 3.

CHASED GOLD VESSEL, CASHMERE.

[Plate 4.

CHASED PARCEL GILT JUG, CASHMERE.

GOLD AND SILVER PLATE. i 45

Valley toward the Lughman hills. It is fully described and figured
in Wilson's Areana Antiqua, and it is figured also in Mrs.

Spiers's Life in Ancient India, 1856. The tope in which it was
found is known as No. 2 of Bimaran. Dr. Honigberger first
opened this monument but abandoned it, having been forced to
hastily return to Cabul. Mr. Masson continued Honigberger's
pursuit, and in the centre of the tope discovered a small apart-
ment, constructed as usual by squares of slate, in which were found
several most valuable relics. One of these was a good-sized
globular vase of steatite, which, with its carved cover or lid, was
encircled with inscriptions scratched with a style in Bactro-Pali
characters. On removing the lid, the vase was found to contain
[ a little fine mould, mixed up with burnt pearls, sapphire beads,
&c, and this casket of pure gold, which was also filled with
burnt pearls and beads of sapphire, agate, crystal, and burnt
coral, and thirty small circular ornaments of gold, and a metallic
plate, apparently belonging to a seal, engraved with a seated
figure. By the side of the vase were found four copper
coins, in excellent preservation, having been deposited in
the tope freshly minted. They were the most useful portion
of the relics, for they enabled Professor Wilson to assign
the monument to one ot the Azes dynasty of Graco-Barbaric
kings who ruled in this part of India about 50 b.c. The upper
and lower rims of the casket are studded with Balas rubies, in
alternation with a raised device resembling the sri-vatsa, or curl on
the breast of figures of Vishnu and Krishna; and between these
jewelled lines the whole circumference of the casket is divided
into eight niches, enshrining four figures represented twice over.
The niches are formed by a series of flat pilasters supporting
finely-turned arches, circular below and peaked above, between
which are figures of cranes with outstretched wings. The whole
is executed in the finest style of beaten [refousse] goldsmiths'
work. Like all the Buddhistic remains found in the Panjab and
Afghanistan it is strikingly Byzantine in its general character ; and

146 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

the storks or cranes with outstretched wings in the spaces between
the arches in which the apostle-like figures are niched, recall at
once the figures of angels carved in the spaces between the
arches in Christian Churches. Yet in drawing attention to this
remarkable relic in a letter in the Pall Mall Gazette of June 3,
1875, written on the subject of Dr. Leitner's collection of Bud-
dhistic sculptures from the Panjab, which were then on exhibition
at the Albert Hail, I maintained that it afforded clear evidence of
the influence of Alexander's invasion on the arts of India. The
Greeks had conquered all this part of India, and established a
monarchy there, and issued a coinage which was at first purely
Greek in its character. In The Indian Travels of Apollonius
of Tyana [Priaulx], about a.d. 50, he is related to have found
Phraotes, who ruled over what of old was the kingdom of Porus,
not only speaking Greek, but versed in all the literature and
philosophy of Greece. The villagers of a neighbouring kingdom
— somewhere in the Panjab-— are also said to have still used the
fc}reek language. There may be the grossest exaggeration in all
this, but it proves at least that such statements were the common-
places of Indian travel in the first century of our era. The
conclusion therefore is' that the remarkable European character of
the Buddhistic sculptures in the Panjab and Afghanistan, is due,
not to Byzantine but to Greek influence ; and it is confirmed by
the discovery of this casket. They are unmistakably Buddhistic
sculptures, and therefore may date from B.C. 250 to about
a.d. 700; and any of them which are later than the fourth
century, a.d. may have been executed under Byzantine influence.
But the date of this golden casket proves that its Byzantine
and mediaeval look is due to Greek inspiration ; and the probab-
ility is that the Buddhistic remains existing in the neighbourhood
of Peshawar in the Panjab were also directly influenced by Greek
art j and may, some of them, therefore be of an earlier date than
is usually admitted. Dr. Leitner was the first to insist on describ-
ing them as Graeco-Buddhistic sculptures. Their resemblance to

[Plate 5.

[Plate 6.

CHASED PARCEL GILT SARA I, LUCKNOW.

I 1

[Plate 7.

GOLD AND SILVER PLATE.

the Byzantine ivories, as of this casket to Byzantine goldsmiths'
work, is probably due to their having been executed by Indian
workmen from Greek designs or models. It will be interesting
to observe that the peaked arches represented on this casket are
identical in character with the peaked arches of the upper part of
the piazza of St. Mark's at Venice, which was restored I believe
in 1592. The bottom of the casket is ornamented with a beauti-
ful conventional representation of the sacred lotus with eight
petals, which are pointed like the arches of the eight niches
above them.

The silver patera has been fully described and figured by me
in vol. xi, New Series, of the Transactions of the Royal Society of
Literature. It was also described and figured by Prinsep in vol.
vii of the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Bengal ; and is
mentioned and badly figured in Sir Alexander Burnes' Cabool, 1843.
Colonel Yule gives a woodcut of it in the second edition of his
Marco Polo. Sir Alexander Burnes figures along with it a second
silver dish of Persian work, representing Yezdigird I [a.d. 632],
which is described by General Cunningham in vol. x of the
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. This second dish is said
to be still in the possession of the Burnes family, and would be an
invaluable addition to the few objects of historical Indian art in the
India Museum. The patera belonging to the India Office Library
had been an heirloom in the family of the Mirs of Badakshan,
who claim to be descendants of Alexander the Great ; and it had
been sold by them in their extremity, when they were conquered
by Mir Morad Bey of Kunduz, to Atmaram his Dewan Begi.
It was from Atmaram that Dr. Lord obtained it, and the Persian
dish also ; and he presented the patera to the India Museum, and
the Persian dish to Sir Alexander Burnes. The diameter of the
patera is 9 inches, its depth ij inches, and its thickness J to
T V and o 1 ^ of an inch; and its weight 29 oz. 5 dwt. Troy. It
represents in high relief, with all the usual adjuncts of classic
mythology, the procession of Dionysos. The god himself sits in

, 4 8 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

a car drawn by two harnessed females, with a drinking cup in his
extended right hand, and his left arm resting on the carved elbow
of the seat on which he reclines, or it may be the shoulder
of Ariadne. In front of the car stands a winged Eros holding
a wine-jug in his left hand, and brandishing in his right a fillet,
the other end of which is held by a flying Eros. A third Eros
is pushing the wheel of the carriage, behind which follows the
dancing Heracles, recognised by the club and panther's skin.
Over all is a rude and highly conventionalised representation of
a clustering vine; and in the lower exergue a panther is seen
pressing its head into a wine jar, placed between the representa-
tions of some tree, possibly a pomegranate, arranged symmetrically

on either side of it.

The figures, which shew traces of gilding, are all encrusted
on the surface of the patera, and the heads of the Dionysos and
Heracles are both wanting. It is in the style of the later Roman
and Byzantine ivories ; and on the face of it, from the thickness
of the silver, especially in the raised figures, its debased drawing,
and slovenly workmanship, it belongs to an age when Greek art
had under the various degrading influences to which it was
exposed during the Roman and Byzantine period gradually
become barbarised. I have no doubt that this patera is of
Eastern workmanship, possibly of colonists from Rome ; and we
may conjecture it to have been taken among the spoil when
Antioch fell to the Persians, a.d. 540. It may, however, be
ancient Indian work of Bactria of the same age as the Buddhist
sculptures of Peshawar, which it closely resembles in its manner
of composition and modelling.

The Panjab has ever maintained a traditional reputation for
the excellence of its gold and silver plate. The best known is
the parcel gilt work of Cashmere, which is almost confined to the
production of the water-vessels or sarais, copied from the clay
goblets in use throughout the northern parts of the Panjab. Their
elegant shapes and delicate tracery, graven through the gilding to

[Plate 8 (to).

PIWCEECAND re/'oussjZ silver shrink screen, madlra. >

[Plate 10.

GOLD DISH, MYSORE.

GOLD AND SILVER PLATE.

149

the dead white silver below, which softens the lustre of the gold
to a pearly radiance, gives a most charming effect to this refined
and graceful work. It is an art said to be imported by the
Mongols, but influenced by the natural superiority of the people
of the Cashmere valley over all other Orientals in elaborating
decorative details of good design, whether in metal work, ham-
mered and cut, or enamelling, or weaving. Cups are also made
in this work, and trays of a very pretty four-cornered pattern,
the corners being shaped like the Mahommedan arch. Among
the Prince of Wales' Indian presents there is a tray with six
cups and saucers in " ruddy gold," which is an exquisite example
of the goldsmiths' art of Cashmere. The Prince of Wales also
exhibits at Glasgow a remarkable candelabrum in silver gilt from
Srinagar, shaped like a conventional tree, and ornamented all
over with the crescent and flame device, and hanging fishes, its
design being evidently derived through Persia from a Turkoman
original. The candelabra in Hindu temples constantly take this
tree form, without the addition of the symbols of the sky and ether ;
and trees of solid gold and silver, representing the mango or any
other tree, and of all sizes, are common decorations in Hindu
houses. Often they are made of silk, feathers, and tinsel, and
they always recall to mind the terpole, or golden vine made
in ancient times by the goldsmiths of Jerusalem. Josephus
{Antiquities xiv 3] informs us that when Pompey came to
Damascus, Aristobulus sent him out of Judaea a great present,
which was a golden vine or garden, which the Jews called terpole,
the "delight."

Plates 3 and 4 are examples of unusual forms of Cashmere
work, the latter in parcel gilt and the former in "ruddy gold."
This " ruddy gold " is used in India only in Cashmere, and outside
India proper in Burma. All over India elsewhere gold is stained
deep yellow, except in Sindh where the goldsmiths and jewellers
sometimes give it a singular and highly artistic tinge 'of olive-
brown.

i$a INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

The silver sarais made at Lucknow [Plates 5 and 6] are very
like those of Cashmere, and are evidently derived from them, those
of Cashmere being distinguished by the introduction of the shawl
cone pattern in the chasing. Lucknow was once famous for its
vessels of mixed gold and silver, but since the abolition of the
native court of Oudh, their production, as of all the other sump-
tuary arts of the old royal city, has steadily declined.

A considerable quantity of gold and silver plate, of good
original design and excellent workmanship is now made at Dacca
in Bengal, chiefly for export to Calcutta. At Chittagong also, in
the same Presidency, the manufacture of vessels in gold and silver
is a growing industry ; but the gold and silversmiths there can only
execute plain work to pattern, and do not seem to have any
original designs.

In the Central Provinces Chanda was formerly distinguished
for its workers in the precious and baser metals, but much of
their fame has now been lost, owing to the decreased demand
for their wares under British rule. The district still, however,
possesses good goldsmiths and silversmiths, whose work is marked
by the strongest local character.

In the Bombay Presidency the plate of Kutch and Gujarat
has long been noted. Sir Seymour Fitzgerald has lent the
India Museum a bowl and tray [Plate 7] of the old pierced
panel gilt work [the opus interrasile of the Romans] of Ahmed-
abad. The form of the bowl is European, but derived, as is
proved by the ornamentation of the tray, though Persia; while
the Hindu influence is clearly shewn in the character which the
foot of the bowl has taken in the hands of the Ahmedabad artist.
It is a noble example of the grand style of goldsmiths' work
executed in India in past times, for this bowl is not less than
150 or 200 years old. The silver gilt vase, and silver gilt and
jewelled coffee pot, illustrated in Plates 8 and 9, are known to be
not less than 200 years old, having been nearly all that time
in the possession of the family of the native gentleman of Gujarat,

[Plate

SECTION OF GOLD DISH, MYSORE.

[Plate 12 (to).

[Plate 13.

GOLD AND SILVER PLATE.

from whom they were obtained. They are said to have been
made by a Jaina goldsmith. The coffee-pot is evidently derived
from a Mongol original, and the vase from a Greek, or possibly
Sassanian ; and both illustrate the natural capacity for as-
similating foreign forms possessed by the Hindus, when left
to deal with them in their own way. It is their patient work-
manship apparently which is the source of this happy power.
Working in gold and silver is still carried on in every district
of Gujarat, in all the big towns and large villages, and especially
at Dholka, Viragram, and Ahmedabad. The beautiful silver and
gold repousse work of Katch is of Dutch origin, but has been
perfectly converted to the native style of the province, and is
much sought after. The goldsmiths of Katch are also very
skilful in decorating arms in silver, and parcel gilt, and gold : and
colonies of them are established all over Gujarat and Kathiwar.
Lord Northbrook exhibited at Paris some fine Katch repousse
work by Umersi Manji, a goldsmith of Katch Buj. The Sindh,
goldsmiths' work is very beautiful, and of uncontaminated indige-
nous design, but is seldom seen excepting at Exhibitions. In
the city of Bombay there are 2,875 jewellers, of the different
Indian nationalities of the Presidency, who find constant and
lucrative employment.

Everywhere in Madras gold and silver, and indeed all the
metals, are superbly wrought. Among the Prince of Wales'
presents is a shrine screen [Plate 8] of old Madras pierced and
hammered silver, which is a wonderful example of manipula-
tive dexterity. Three other illustrations are given [Plates 9,
10 and n] from the Prince's presents of Mysore gold dishes.
Fig. 9 is a rare example in Indian work of properly applied
ornamentation. The rim and cover of the tray are elaborately
enriched with embossed flowers and leaves ; while the bottom is
left plain, excepting the well proportioned border, and a centre
panel of flowery geometrical design, which is enchased, so as not
to interfere with its necessary flatness of surface. Figs. 10 and

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

ii, although purely Hindu in detail, seem to be Saracenic in
general style, and in the subordination of the decoration both to
form and to the spacing of the general design. In the character-
istic swami work of the Madras Presidency the ornamentation
consists of figures of the Puranic gods in high relief, either beaten
out from the surface, or affixed to it, whether by soldering, or
wedging or screwing them on. The Greeks called the art of
working metal in relief ToptvrLKrj, and the artists of such work in
Rome went by the name of crustarii, from the crustce, or small
ornaments in relief, with which they encrusted their work • while
the larger reliefs which they fastened on in such a way that
they could be removed at pleasure, as can be done with
the larger of these Madras swami figures, were called emble-
7?iata. The large silver presentation shield in the India Museum,
covered in this way with figures of the Puranic gods, is an amazing
production of misapplied official energy. The emblemata are
admirably wrought, but the shield on which they are fastened is
evidently of Anglo-Indian design; and the effect produced is
most discordant and unpleasing.

The Indian goldsmith has sometimes to execute his work on
a truly colossal scale, reminding one of the gold work done for
Solomon's temple and house. If a Hindu has to undergo puri-
fication, one of the necessary rites is to step through the yom\ the
mystic symbol of female power. This is often done by sitting for
an instant on the scar of a tree, bearing a similitude to the sacred
symbol. Sometimes the scar forms a true matrix, or the cavity
may penetrate the whole thickness of the tree, when the Hindu
will step in and out of it, or what is holiest, will pass right through
it, in sign of his regeneration. But when the two Brahmans whom
Raganatha Rao [Ragoba] the Maratha Peishwa sent to England
in 1780 returned to India, they were compelled to pass through a
yoni made of the finest gold before they could be readmitted into
caste. Ragoba himself, on his defeat and expulsion from his
capital, had a cow of gold made, and was passed through it, in the

Ill

[Plate i

COPPER LOTA, ENCRUSTED WITH SILVER, TANJORE

GOLD AND SILVER PLATE. 153

hope of bettering his fortune. The King of Travancore about
the same time, wishing to atone for all the blood he had spilt in
his wars, was persuaded by the Brahmans that it was necessary for
him to be born again \ when a cow of gold was made of immense
value, through which the King, after lying in it for some time,
was passed, regenerated, and freed from all the burden of the
crimes of his former life. It is said that to this day the rajas
of Travancore, on succeeding to the throne, all go through
the same ceremony, and are thereby elevated to the status 01
Brahmans.

Metal Work en Brass. Copper and Tin.

Water vessels or lotas, dishes, bowls, candlesticks, images of
the gods, temple bells, sacrificial spoons, censers, and other
sacred and domestic utensils in brass and copper are made all
over India, and of the same patterns as we find in representations
of them on the oldest Buddhist sculptures and cave-paintings.
These metal vessels in a native Indian household supply the
place of porcelain, glass and silver plate in a European family.
Hindus use brass vessels and Mahommedans copper, except for
drinking-cups, which are generally of silver. The lota is the glo-
bular ewer, sometimes melon-shaped, flattened from top to bottom
and very rarely from side to side, universally used in ceremonial
and other ablutions, and its name is the same word as lotus, the
water-lily, and comes from the same root as the I,atin lotus,
washed, and the English, lotion, a wash. It is found plain,
chased, graven, and encrusted. The most interesting of all
known lotas is one in the India Museum [Plate 12] dis-
covered by Major Hay in 1857, at Kundlah in Kulu, where a
landslip had exposed the ancient Buddhist cell in which this
lota had been lying buried for 1,500 years; for it is attributed by
Oriental scholars to the date a.v. 200-300. It is exactly of the
shape now made, and is enchased all round with a representation
of Gautama Buddha, as Prince Siddhartha, before his conversion,
going on some high procession. An officer of state, on an
elephant, goes before ; tlx- minstrels, two damsels, one playing on

[Plate i3.

COPPER LOTA, WITH HAMMERED ORNAMENT, TANJORE

ill

[Plate 19.

I Plate 20.

HRAHS KH'.UU

VIZAOAPATAIC

[Plate 21.

UKASS KI<>UKK

!ZA<1APAIAM

METAL WORK IN BRASS, ETC. 155

a vina, and the other on a flute, follow after ; in the midst is the
Prince Siddhartha, in his chariot drawn by four prancing horses ;
all rendered with that gala air of dainty pride, and enjoyment in
the fleeting pleasures of the hour, which is characteristic of the
Hindu to the present day, as if life were indeed

" musical as is Apollo's lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets,
Where no crude surfeit reigns."

The copper statue of Buddha at Sultanganj 1 [Royal Asiatic
Society of Bengal Vol. XXX, 360] is the largest metal work of
ancient times extant in India, and is a monument of the early
proficiency of the Hindus in melting and casting metal. The
iron pillar, which stands in the centre of the courtyard of the
Kutub mosque at old Delhi, is a solid shaft of iron, 23 feet
8 inches in total height, and 16*4 inches in diameter at the
base, and 12*05 inches at the capital, which is 3J feet high.
Mr. Fergusson assigns to it the mean date of a.d. 400, and
observes that it opens our eyes to an unsuspected state of affairs
to find the Hindus at that age capable of forging a bar of iron
larger than any that has been forged in Europe up to a late
date, and not frequently even now. After an exposure of fourteen
centuries, it is still unrusted, and the capital and inscription are
as clear and as sharp as when the pillar was first erected. A cast
of it is shewn in the India Museum. The beautiful hammered
and perforated brass gates of the tomb of Shah Alum at Ahmed-
abad are another notable sample of the great skill of the natives
of Gujarat in metal work.

Mr. Baden Powell in his Handbook on the Manufactures and
Arts of the Punjab (Lahore, 1872), gives a complete list, with
their native names and uses, of the commoner brass and copper
utensils made at Karnal, Amritsa and Lahore. They form the

1 Now in private hands in Birmingham. — See Fergusson, History of Indian
ami Eastern Architecture, p. 137.

156

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

staple of the work in metals of the Panjab, and in every large
town he says great quantities of metal vessels, drinking cups,
cooking pots, and lamps, in short all articles of household use,
are made for local consumption. Amritsar, Ambala, Ludhiana,
Jalandhar, all export brass vessels into the hills round the Pan-
jab, and up the Cabul valley into Afghanistan. The high brass
tree-like candelabra, with a number of branches bearing little
lamps filled with oil, and having a wick in each, are a marked
feature in great houses in Lahore, and are known by the name
of char-divas, i.e. lamps with four wicks [literally " lights," the
word diva meaning both light and God].

In Cashmere tin is soldered on copper which has been pre-
viously deeply graven over with a diffused floral design, the sunken
ground of which is then filled in with a black composition, some-
thing after the manner of niello. This pretty work, from Cash-
mere, is very rare in England, but Lord Northbrook exhibited
a variety of it in three dishes at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.
They are studded all over with little raised flowers, which shine
like frosted silver out of a groundwork of blackened foliated
scrolls, which are traced so delicately as to look like the finest
Chantilly lace.

At Moradabad, in the North West Provinces, tin is soldered on
brass, and incised through to the brass in floriated patterns, which
sometimes are simply marked by the yellow outlines of the brass
[Plate 12] and at others [Plate 13] by graving out the whole
ground between the scrolls, and filling it in with a blackened
composition of lac, as is done in Cashmere.

Benares, in the North- Western Provinces, is the first city in
India for the multitude and excellence of its cast and sculptured
mythological images and cmblemata, not only in brass and copper,
but in gold and silver, and also in wood and stone and clay.
These images of the gods are not made by a separate caste, but
the carpenters and the masons respectively make the large wooden
and stone idols set up in the temples, the potters the clay idols

[Plate 22.

[Platk 23

BRASS FIGURE, No. 4. VIZAGAPATAM.

[Plate 24.

BRASS FIGURE. No. 5. V1ZAGAPATAM

[Plate 25.

BRASS FIGURE. No 6, NZAGAFATAM.

METAL WORK IN BRASS, ETC. i 57

consumed in daily worship, and the braziers, coppersmiths, and
goldsmiths the little images in brass and copper, mixed metal,
and gold and silver which are always kept in private houses.
Brass is largely used in their manufacture, alloyed with six other
metals, gold, silver, iron, tin, lead, and mercury, making with the
copper, and the zinc of the brass, a mixture of eight metals, which
is deemed a perfect alloy, and very highly prized. Idols of pure
gold and silver are also made, and in the Sastras great praise is
bestowed on those who worship graven images of these precious
metals. The larger idols are always cast in moulds, and after-
wards finished with the chisel and file. The gold images of Durga,
Lakshmi, Krishna, Radha, and Saraswati kept in private houses
and worshipped daily, must not be less than one tola [nearly half
an ounce] in weight, and they generally weigh three or four tolas.
The images of Shitala [the goddess of small-pox] are always of
silver, and weigh ten or twelve tolas. The images of Siva in his
lingam form are made of an amalgam of mercury and tin, and are
esteemed most sacred. They are always very small, and are kept
in all houses and used in the daily worship. Copper images of
Surya, and of Siva riding on Nandi, and also, in many parts of
India, of the serpent Naga, are kept in all houses and are wor-
shipped daily. Brazen images of many of the gods are also kept
in private houses and daily worshipped : and images of Radha,
Durga, lakshmi and Siva in mixed metal. The images of the gods
made of this perfect alloy may also be worshipped either at home
or in the temples. The images of all the gods and goddesses are
graven in stone, but they are generally worshipped only in the
temples ; only a few very small ones being found in private houses,
the greater number of those used in domestic worship being of the
lingam form of Siva. The stone images seen in Bengal are gener-
ally of black marble, but there are some at Benares which are
white. Wooden images are never kept in private houses, but only
in the temples. The nimba tree, Melia Azadirachta, furnishes the
temple images of Vishnu, Durga, Radha, lakshmi, Siva, Garuda,

158

INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

and others. The mendicant followers of Vishnu always carry-
about a wooden image of him two cubits high. All images of
clay are thrown into the river after being worshipped, and have
therefore to be renewed daily. They are generally two cubits
high. The figures made of Karttikeya for his annual festival in
Bengal are often twenty-seven feet high. An immense manu-
facture of all these idols and of sacrificial utensils is carried on
in Benares. The industry has sprung up naturally from the services
of the numerous temples of this city, and has converted the pre-
cinct of every temple into an ecclesiastical bazaar. It was in this
way that the seats of those who sold doves for sacrifice, and the
tables of the bankers [soukars in India] who exchanged unholy for
holy coins, were gradually intruded into the outer court of the
Temple at Jerusalem; and that the "booths of Bethany" rose
beneath the green branches on the opposite slopes of the Mount
of Olives. Miss Gordon Cumming, who has given a most
graphic account of the temples and temple services at Benares,
says that it is impossible to walk through the bazaars of this city
without recalling the descriptions of the vessels of the Temple of
Jerusalem : of " the cauldrons, pots and bowls ; the shovels, the
snuffers, and the spoons, the censers, the basons, the lamps, the
candlesticks, and all manner of things to be made either of gold,
or of bright brass, which might be continually scoured. Here in
the open sunlight are stalls heaped up with all sorts of brass work for
the use of the worshippers. Incense burners and curious spoons,
basons and lamps, pots and bowls, and a thousand other things of
which we knew neither the name nor the use, but which the owners
were continually scouring until they gleamed in the sun." Amid
these busy, noisy shops stands the red sandstone temple of Durga,
elaborately carved from base to pinnacle, and alive with monkeys :
and down the next street, another dedicated to the same god
dess is full of brilliant peacocks; while above all else rise
the glittering domes of the great golden temple of Siva, which
is for miles around the cynosure of the pilgrims proceeding

[Plate

BRASS FIGL'RK. No 7. VIZAGAIWTAM.

[Plate 27.

BRASS CANPLKS TICK, MADURA

[Plate 2S.

COPPER-C

>K MADURA.

[Plate 29.

TRA-POT ?— -NIPAL

METAL WORK IN BRASS, ETC.

r 59

toward the sacred city from every part of India. The narrow
streets are full of beautiful white cows adorned with garlands
of flowers, and having the trisula of Siva stamped on their hind
quarters: and every street leads down to the Ganges and the
thousand temples and pavilions clustered along its banks

A large quantity of the exported domestic brass work of Benares
has m recent years found its way into this country. It is very
rickety in its forms, which are chased all over in shallow weak
patterns; and it fails altogether to please owing to its excessive
ornamentation. In the trays particularly all appearance of utility
is destroyed by the unsuitable manner in which decoration is
applied over their whole surface.

In Oudh, the town of Bandhua enjoys a local reputation for its
metal vessels.

In Bengal what are known as kansha plates are a specialty
of Bardwan and Midnapur; and several other places in the
Bardwan division are noted for their metal pots and pans:
and also Nuddea, and Panihatti in the Presidency divi-
sion. At Nuddea, however, the industry has latterly declined
owing to the bankruptcy of the chief manufacturer. In the
Chittagong division the village braziers turn out excellent metal
work. All sorts of domestic utensils in brass and bell metal
are made throughout the Rajshahi division, particularly at Mur-
shedabadand Malda; also at Shahabad in the Patna division;
and throughout the Orissa division ; in brass and pewter in the
Chota Nagpore division ; and in iron and brass all over the
Dacca division, particularly about Mymensing ; where, at Rag-
man, brass, and iron, and also white metal work, are produced on
a large scale. At Ragman alone 300 men arc employed in the
business, and the yearly out-turn is over 1 50,000 lbs. These
wares are always sold by weight, a small fraction over it being
allowed for the manufacturer's profit.

In the Central Provinces which are the ancient Gondwana. the
>rk of Nagpur, consisting of lotas, katoras, and cooking

urass wor

160 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

vessels, is distinguished by its pure traditional forms. Brass wares
of the same excellence of form are manufactured also a little higher
up the Waingunga at Bundhara and Pauni, but more extensively
at the former place. The articles produced are cooking utensils,
and water vessels of all kinds used by natives, handlamps, candle-
sticks, and candelabra, drinking cups, bells, and fountains. The
braziers there also work in bell metal, pewter, and copper.
Excellent brass and copper utensils are also made at Brahmapuri
in the Chanda district. The town of Chanda itself was formerly
distinguished for its workers in the precious and baser metals
but much of its fame is now lost. Brass and bell-metal vessels
are also largely manufactured at Sambulpur in the extreme east,
and at Chichli in the Narsingpur district in the north of the
Central Provinces. In the wild southern district of Bustar brass
pots are manufactured by the Ghasias from old ones. The
hatchets and knives always to be seen in the hands of the
people of this district are made at Madder, and other places,
on the Upper Godaveri, which bounds the Central Provinces
toward the south-west Steel of excellent quality is forged at
Tendukhera in the Narsingpur district, and at Katangi, Jabera,
Barela, and Pan agar in the Jubbulpur district, on the Nerbudda
which bounds the Central Provinces on the north.

At Dewalghat in Berar [Hyderabad Assigned Districts],
not far westward from Bundara, steel of fine quality is also
forged.

In the Bombay Presidency, Nassik and Poona and Ahmeda-
bad have always been famous for their copper and brass work.
Besides the ordinary house pots and cups, the braziers of
Ahmedabad make very graceful and delicately cut brass screens
[possibly derived originally from the beautiful brass gates of
Shah Alum's tomb], and pandans, for holding betel [fan] leaf,
small boxes of very graceful form, covered with the most
delicate tracery, and known to Europeans as spice boxes.
Their wares belong to two chief classes: the first of copper,

[Plate

I Wo |

)F DAMASCENED SPICE-BOX FIGURED IN
PLATE jo.

SAMAI. DAMASCENED 1* SILVER. HYDERABAD IN THE DARHAN.

[Plate 33.

I, DAMASCENED W «LVER. HYDERABAD IN THE

METAL WORK IN BRASS, ETC. 161

domestic pots, jewelry caskets, and inkstands; and the second
of brass, sweetmeat boxes, spice boxes [pandans], rings,
lamps, idols, and chains. They make their own brass in the pro-
portion of four parts of copper to three of zinc. A good deal of
iron work is also done at Ahmedabad. There is a large manu-
facture of idols in all the metals at Nassik and Poona. Good
brass utensils are also made at Kelshi and at Bagmandli in the
Ratnagiri collectorate. Bells for bullocks are a speciality of
Sirsangi in the extreme eastern limits of Parasgad in the Belgaum
collectorate. The most active industry in the town of Bombay
is the manufacture of brass and copper pots and other utensils
in universal use among the natives of India. The Copper Bazaar
opposite the Mombadevi Tank [the Mirror of the Goddess of
Bombay] is the busiest and noisiest, and one of the most delight-
ful streets in all the native town. Mr. Terry states [Maclean's
Guide to Bombay\ that there are 1,069 coppersmiths, and 1,536
blacksmiths in Bombay.

In the Madras Presidency brass and copper vessels, and also
of iron and steel, are made at Maddagiri, Nagamangala, Karatagiri,
Magadi, Beliir, Tagari, Sravan, and Channapatna in Mysore.
The brass and copper utensils, and brass and copper [and also
stone] idols of the Tumkur districts are widely noted. In the
Hassan district the Jainas enjoy a monopoly of the manufacture,
which employs 1,331 persons who receive orders from all parts of
Southern India. Very good brass work is also made at Nellore ;
but that of Madura and Tanjore is superior to all, and the finest
in India. In its bold forms, and elaborately inwrought orna-
mentation it recalls the descriptions by Homer of the work of
the artists of Sidon in bowls of antique frame. Some are
simply etched, and others deeply cut in mythological designs
[Plate 14] and others [Plate 15] are diapered all over with
crusta of the leaf pattern, seen in Assyrian sculptures, copper
on brass, or silver on copper, producing an effect often of
quite regal grandeur. Castellani possesses the finest specimen

162 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

known (Plate 16), of silver encrusted on brown waxy copper.
In Plate 15 the bold form of the lota is well brought out by
the disposition of the diaper pattern round the body of the
vessel. Plate 17 is of a little copper lota elegantly encrusted
with silver. Plate 18 is an illustration of Madras hammered
work in copper. Nothing could be more effectual than the
simple architectural decoration of this little lota f which is one
of Colonel Michael's admirable selections. The ornamentation
of the dish represented in Plate 19 is excessive, but is skilfully
relieved by the fluted pattern of the cove. All these illus-
trations are of Tanjore work. Among the Prince of Wales'
Indian presents is a collection of little brass figures from
Vizagapatam, which for skilful modelling, finish, and a certain
irresistible grotesqueness of expression, are the finest I have
ever seen. I have been permitted to add engravings of seven
of them [Plates 20 to 26], which graphically illustrate the whole
gamut of military swagger in man and beast Plate 27 is a
representation of a Madras temple lamp. The temple bells of
India are celebrated for the depth and purity of their note, and
those of Madras are distinguished above all others by their
stately architectural forms. The handles are generally crowned
with a group of the Puranic gods, sculptured in full relief. The
sacrificial vases also are often very beautifully designed and
wrought. There is a very fine one in the India Museum [Plate
28] from some temple of Vishnu in Madras. The vase figured
in Plate 29 is said to be from Nipal, and is possibly a tea-pot

We have seen that beside the ordinary brass, the Hindus
use an alloy of copper mixed with gold, like the ancient aes
Corinthium. The so-called dark "bronxes" of India, are not
of true bronze, that is a mixture of copper and tin, which the
Hindus hold to be impure, but of copper without alloy.

[Plates 34,

VESSEL, AND BOWL, DAMASCENED IN SILVER, PURNIAH.

SO
CO

w
H

b
-

Q
<

Q
—

ENAMELLED SAMAt, FAN JAB

[Plate 38.

KNAMh

TOl PKRIOD.

Damascened Work.

Damascening is the art of encrusting one metal on another,
not in criista, which are soldered on or wedged into the metal
surface to which they are applied, but in the form of wire, which
by undercutting and hammering is thoroughly incorporated with
the metal which it is intended to ornament. Practically, damas-
cening is limited to encrusting gold wire, and sometimes silver
wire, on the surface of iron, or steel, or bronze. This system of
ornamentation is peculiarly Oriental, and takes its name from
Damascus, where it was carried to the highest perfection by the
early goldsmiths. It is now practised with the greatest success
in Persia and in Spain. In India damascening in gold is carried
on chiefly in Cashmere, at Gujrat and Sialkote in the Panjab,
and also in the Nizam's dominions, and is called kuft work.
Damascening in silver is called Udri, from Bider, in the Nizam's
Dominion, where it is principally produced. There is a cheap kuft
work done by simply laying gold leaf on the steel plate, on which
the ornamentation has been previously etched. The gold is easily
made to adhere to the etching, and is then wiped off the rest of
the surface.

The spice box lent by the Queen, of which Plates 30 and 31 are
illustrations, is one of the finest examples of the kuft work of the
Panjab in the India Museum. Some beautiful examples of it
will also be noted among the Museum collection of arms
[Plate 42]. In bidri the metal ground is a compound of

1 64 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

copper, lead and tin, made black on the surface by dipping
it in a solution of sal-ammoniac, saltpetre, salt and blue vitriol.
This alloy, after being first melted and cast, is turned in a lathe
to complete the form, which is usually that of the ordinary sarat,
or water goblet, or hukah stand. Then the required pattern is
graven over it, and inlaid with silver ; and finally the ground of
the vessel is blackened, and its silver ornamentation scoured to
the brightest polish.

Bidri is also made at Purniah, in the Bhagalpur division of
Bengal, where only zinc is mixed with copper in the alloy : and
inferior kinds of the work are produced at other places. It is
also imitated in pottery. It is the highest art practised in India
after enamelling, and was originally introduced by the Mahomme-
dans from Persia. In the bidri of Bider the floral decoration
is generally drawn in a more or less naturalistic manner [Plates
32 and 33], while in that of Purniah it is always strictly con-
ventional [Plates 34 and 35]. Fig. 34 is an admirable example
of a gold decorative effect produced by the skilful use of a
few simple lines. Sometimes the decoration of the Purniah
bidri is Chinese in character, and has evidently been derived
through Sikkim or Bhutan.

[Plate 39.

SHIELD. DANASCKNKD IN GOLD. PANJAH

Enamels.

'Enamelling is the master art craft of the world, and the enamels
of Jaipur in Rajputana rank before all others, and are of matchless
perfection. There are three forms of enamelling followed.

In the first the enamel is simply applied to the metal as paint
is applied to canvas ; and in the second, translucent enamels are
laid over a design which has been etched on, or hammered
[repoussi] out of the metal. Both these are comparatively modern
methods. The third form of enamelling by encrustation is very
ancient, and is known under -two varieties, namely, the cloisonne,
in which the pattern is raised on the surface of the metal by
means of strips of metal or wire welded on to it ; and the champ-
lert, in which the pattern is cut out of the metal itself. In both
varieties the pattern is filled in with the enamel. In all forms of
true enamelling the coloring glaze has to be fused on to the metal.
There is indeed a fourth form of enamelling, practised by the
Japanese. They paint in the pattern coarsely, as in the first form,
and then outline it with strips of copper or gold, to imitate true
cloisonne enamels. The Jaipur enamelling is champlev'e. A round
plate among the Prince of Wales 1 Indian presents is the largest
specimen of it ever produced. It took four years in the making,
and is in itself a monument of the Indian enameller's art. Another
notable example of it is the beautiful covered cup and saucer,
and spoon, belonging to Lady Mayo. The bowl of the spoon
is cut out of a solid emerald, and, as in all Hindu sacrificial

i66

RIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

spoons, from which it is designed, is in the same plane with the
handle. It is perfect in design and finish, and is surely the
choicest jewelled spoon in existence. Another exquisite example
of Jaipur enamelling is the little perfume box, or aiardan, some-
thing like a patch box, with a cone-shaped cover, belonging to
Mr. W. Anderson, and formerly exhibited in the South Kensington
Museum. All round the box is a -representation of Krishna,
surrounded by cows and calves, and shepherdesses, in a grove,
with birds singing among the branches : and on the cover is one
of Krishna dancing with the shepherdesses, on a green ground
of hills and valleys, dales and fields. It was surmounted with
a yellow diamond, in perfect harmony with the colors of the
green, white, blue, orange, and scarlet enamels, but the owner
has replaced it by a perfectly inharmonious stone of die purest
and most brilliant water. I deeply regret that it has not been
possible to obtain illustrations of the Prince of Wales 9 plate, Mr.
Anderson's box, and Lady Mayo's cup and saucer and spoon, in
time for the publication of this Handbook. Of all the Prince of
Wales' enamels the daintiest device is a native writing-case, or
kalamdan, shaped like an Indian gondola [Plate 36]. The stern
is figured like a peacock, the tail of which sweeps under half the
length of die boat, irradiating it with blue and green enamels,
brighter even than the natural iridescence of a peacock's tail.
The canopy which covers the ink bottle is colored with green,
blue, ruby, and coral red rnyn^lf- It is the mingled brilliance
of its greens, blues, and reds which, laid on pure gold, makes
the superlative excellence and beauty of the enamelling of
Jaipur. Even Paris cannot paint gold with the ruby red, coral
red, emerald green, and turquoise and sapphire blues of the
enamels of Jaipur, Lahore, Benares, and Lucknow. In Lady
Mayo's spoon the deep green enamel is as lustrous and transparent
as the emerald which forms the bowL Among the arms in the
India Museum arc some fine examples of old Jaipur enamelling.
The handles of the yak s tails, and of the sandal-wood and ivory

ENAMELS.

167

horse wisps, and of the peacock's tails, which, like the yak's tails,
are symbols of royalty throughout the East, are magnificent
examples of the grandest of the art crafts of India, and truly regal
treasures. The art is practised everywhere in India, at Lucknow
and Benares, at Multan and Lahore, and in Kangra and Cashmere,
but nowhere in such perfection as at Jaipur. It is probably a
Turanian art. It was introduced into China, according to the
Chinese, by the Yeuechi, and was carried as early, if not earlier
into India. From Assyria it probably passed into Egypt, and
through the Phoenicians to Europe. Sidon was as famed for its
glass, as was Tyre renowned for its purple j and the Sidonians
were not only acquainted with glass-blowing, but also with the art
of enamelling in glass in imitation of the precious stones. Among
the Prince of Wales' presents are several specimens of the charm-
ing Cashmere enamels, in which the ground of the usual shawl
pattern ornamentation, cut in gold, is filled in with turquoise blue.
Sometimes a dark green is intermixed with the blue, perfectly
harmonised by the gold, and producing a severely artistic effect.
Lady Wyatt possesses a remarkably fine goblet in this style of
Cashmere enamel [Plate 37].

Among the many splendid loans contributed by the Queen to
the India Museum is a Huka stand, the silver bowl [Plate 38],
of which is painted with flowers in green and blue enamel. It
is one of the finest specimens I know, of the best Mogol period
of transparent enamelling.

At Pertabghar in Rajputana extremely effective and brilliant
trinkets are made, apparently by melting a thick layer of green
enamel on a plate of burnished gold ; and while it is still hot
covering it with thin gold cut into mythological or hunting and
oilier pleasure scenes; in which, amid a delicate network ot
floriated scrolls, elephants, tigers, deer, peacocks, doves, and
parrots are the shapes most conspicuously represented. After
the enamel has hardened the gold work is etched over with
a graver so as to bring out the characteristic details of the

,68 INDUSTRIAL ARTS OF INDIA.

ornamentation. In some cases it would seem as if the surface
of the enamel was first engraved, and then the gold rubbed into
the pattern so produced, in the form of an amalgam, and fixed
by fire. Plate 39 gives illustrations of a casket, and its panels,
of this Pertabghar work, lent by the Queen. The enamels of
Satan in Central India are identical in general character with
those of Pertabghar, but are deep blue in colour, not green.

Beautiful glass bangles [ehuris], and such like ornaments are
made at Rampur [whence they are named Rampurmaniharan]
near Mirut These glass ornaments, of the most brilliant colours,
are also made at Hushyarpur, Multan, Lahore, Patiala, Karnal,
Panipat, and other places in the Panjab : at Banda in the North-
western Provinces; at Dalman and Lucknow in Oudh, where
the art was introduced from Multan; and at Mangrul in the
Central Province*. In the Bombay Presidency glass-making
has its headquarters at Kapadvanj in the Kaira district of
Gujarat It is made into bangles, beads, bottles, looking-
glasses, and the figures of animals, chiefly peacocks, for export
to Bombay and Kathiwar. Glass trinkets are also made in the
Kheda district of Kandesh, and at Bagmandli in the Ratnagiri
collectorate. In the Madras Presidency glass bangles are ex-
tensively made, both at Matod, and Tumkur in Mysore 1 and
in several villages between Guti and Bellary in the Bellary
collectorate. The glass phials for Ganges water, seen all over
India, are made mostly at Sawansa, in the Pertabghar district of
Oudh, and at Nagina, in the Bijnur district of the North-
western Provinces. Most of the Ganges water, which myriads
of pilgrims yearly convey from Hardwar to all parts of India, is
carried in the phials and flasks produced by the manikart of
Sawansa and Nagina.

«.. I.AV. KM, AMI. I AYI'-K. ■ Nr.. 1 I

SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM,

AND

BRANCH MUSEUM, BETHNAL GREEN.

The Museum is open free on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Satur-
days. The Students' days are Wednesdays, Thursdays, and
Fridays, when the public are admitted on payment of sixpence
each person. The hours on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays
are from to a.m. till 10 p.m. j on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and
Fridays from 10 a.m. till 4, 5, or 6 p.m. according to the season.

At Bethnal Green, Wednesday only is a Students' day— on all
other days admission is free.

The Indian Section of the Museum is contained in a range
of galleries on the eastern side of the Horticultural Gardens.
The entrance is from the Exhibition Road. Various other col-
lections belonging to the Museum are also at present exhibited
in galleries adjoining the Horticultural Gardens.

The fee for admission to the Museum on Students' days
gives also the right of entry to the Indian Section and the
other collections in these Galleries which are open daily from
10 a.m. till 4, 5, or 6 p.m.

Tic kets of admission to the Museum, including the Art

Library and Educational Reading Room, are issued at the

following rates :— Weekly, 6d. } Monthly, is. 6d. 9 Quarterly, 3*.,
Half-yearly, 6s., Yearly, 10s.

Yearly Tickets are also issued to any school at £1, which
will admit all the pupils of such schools on all Students' days.

Tickets may be obtained at the Catalogue Sale Stall of the
Museum.

These Tickets also admit to the Branch Museum at Bethnal
Green.

WORKS BY JOHN MARSHALL, F.R.S., F.R.C.S.,

PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY, KOYAL ACADEMY OF AITI ; LATE LECTURER ON ANATOMY AT
THE GOVERNMENT SCHOOL OF DESIGN, SOUTH KENSINGTON; PROFESSOR OF SURGERY IN
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON ; SENIOB SURGEON TO THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
HOSPITAL ; ETC., ETC

FOR ART EDUCATION.
ANATOMY FOR ARTISTS. Illustrated by Two Hundred

Originsl Drawinp by John S. Cuthbert. Engraved by J. End G. Nicholls. Imperial

A RULEOF PROPORTION FOR THE HUMAN FIGURE.

Illustrated by John S. Cuthbert. Fobo. In Wrapper, 81. ; or in Portfolio, 9*.
Prepared for the Department of Science and Art.
A SERIES OF LIFE-SIZE ANATOMICAL DIAGRAMS OF

THE HUMAN BODY, specially adapted for Art Student*. School* of Art. Ac. Price
tar td cadi sheet, coloured; or 1% tr each, selected Proofs, mounted on canvas, with
rollers, and varnished. EXPLANATORY KEY, pries l*

FOR GENERAL EDUCATION.
Prepared for the Department of Science and Art

PHYSIOLOGICAL DIAGRAMS. An Entirely New Edition,

extended and revised by the Author. Eleven DMUjras**, luVeist. each'on pnner

J^re^TssstT^ (Moored, ink. tar.* eac h sheet;

more highly coloured, mounted on canvas, with rollers, and vsmtshed. price £t ia each.

A DESCR^IOl^'^ THE HUMAN BODY : Its Structure

and Faswbons, Ill u s uES a d by PbysiolofJcEl 1
si Schosss and YenRglfaa destined foe the ft
000 imsrily. The Work cemtams
CulifreAllssNTsrinai, arranged in
Cover, tttso Edition, ^ice of the Qsmno \ „

LONDON t SMITH. ELDER, A CO., 15, WATERLOO PLACE.

W. H. ALLEN AND CO/8

LIST OF FORTHCOMING WORKS.

\ PLEASURE TRIP TO INDIA DURING THE VISIT
OF H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES, AND AFTERWARDS
TO CEYLON. By Mis. M. K. GOEMT. With Photograph*.

INDIAN INDUSTRIES. Bjr A. G. F. Euox Jamie.

THE GARDEN OF INDIA ; OR, CHAPTERS ON OUDH
HISTORY AND AFFAIRS. By H. C. Irwin, ft. A. Oroo, Bengal
Civil Service.

INDIAN REMINISCENCES. By Colonel S. Dew* White,
late Bengal Staff Corps.

DESTRUCTION OF LIFE BT SNAKES, HYDROPHOBIA,
ETC., IN WESTERN INDIA, By m Ex-CoM»tt«ftio«sm.

MEMOIRS OF A GRIFFIN ; OR, A CADETS FIRST YEAR
IN INDIA By Captain Brllew. Illttatretcri from Design* by the
Author. A new Edition.

TWENTY-ONE DAYS IN INDIA. Being the Tour of Sir Ali
Bsbn, K.C.H. ByGRORoi Arbaiom-Maceav.

LONDON : W. II. ALLEN, * CO., • J, WATERLOO PLACn%

CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA, AND CHINA,

HATTON COURT, THREADNEEDLE STREET, LONDON.

INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER.

CAPITAL . . £800,000. RESERVE FUND . . £190,000.

COURT OF DIRECTORS, 1880— 1881 :

WILLIAM CHRISTIAN, Esq.
FREDERICK W. HEILGERS, Esq.
JOHN JONES, Esq.
£MILE LEVITA, Esq.

WILLIAM MACNAUGHTEN, Esq.
WILLIAM PATERSON, Esq.
JAMES R. BULLEN SMITH, Esq. C.S.I.
LUDWIG WIESE, Esq.

Manager— JOHN HOWARD GWYTHER.
Secretary— WILLIAM CHARLES MULLINS.

AGENCIES AND BRANCHES:

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and sale of Indian Government and other Securities ; hold them for safe custody and receive
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Deposits of money are received for n jt less than twelve months, bearing interest at 5 per
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INCORPORAT ED BY ROYA L CHARTER.

HEAD OFFICE :— 65, OLD BROAD STREET, E.C.

COURT OF DIRECTORS:
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EDWARD JAMES DAN I ELL, Esq.
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WILLIAM SCOTT, Esq.
A. FRASER, Esq.

DAVID TRAIL ROBERTSON, Esq., cx-officio.

D. T. ROBERTSON, Esq., Chief Manager.

W. JACKSON, Esq., Assistant Chief Manager.

J. M. RE ID, Esq., Sub-Manager.
The Bank receives Money on Deposit, Buys and Sells Bills of Exchange, issues Letters of
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BRANCHES AND SUB-BRANCHES:

In India Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, and

Rangoon.

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In The Straits. Singapore, Penang.

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Deposit Acency-i28, GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH.

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Office Hour«-From IO a.m. till 3 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m. till 2 p.m.

SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM

SCIENCE AND ART HANDBOOKS.

PUBLISHED FOR THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON EDUCATION.

THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS IN SPAIN. By Juan F. Riano.
Numerous Woodcuts. Large crown 8vo. 41.

GLASS. By A. Nesbitt. Illustrated. Large crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.

GOLD AND SILVERSMITHS' WORK. By J. H. Pollen.
Numerous Woodcuts. Large crown 8to. 2s. 6Y.

BRONZES. By C. Drury E. Fortnum, F.S.A. With numerous
Woodcuts. Large crown Svo. 2s. 6tf.

ANIMAL PRODUCTS : their Preparation, Commercial Uses,
and Value By T. L. Simmonds. Large crown 8vo. 7/. 64 1

FOOD : A Short Account of the Sources, Constituents, and Uses
of Food. By A. H. Church, M.A., Oxon. Large crown 8?o. 3/.

TEXTILE FABRICS. By the Very Rev. Daniel Rock, D.D.
With numerous Woodcuts. Large crown 8vo. is. 6d.

IVORIES: ANCIENT AND MEDIAEVAL. By Wiluam
Mask ell. With numerous Woodcuts. Large crown 8ro. sr. 6/,

ANCIENT AND MODERN FURNITURE AND WOOD-
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MAIOLICA. By C Drury E. Fortnum, F.S. A. With nume-
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MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. By Carl Enoel With nume-

run* Woodcuts. Large crown 8vo. is. < ;'.

MANUAL OF DESIGN. By GlLBEM k. Redorave. With
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TAPESTRY. By Alfred Ciiampealx. With Woodcuts. I-arcc
crown 8vo. a/.6V. *

Historical Sketches. With 242

LEVANT CARPET WAREHOUSE,

1 08 & 109, HIGH HOLBORN.
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: * Established 1792.

CARDINAL & HARFORD,

IMPORTERS DIRECT OF

Turkey, Persian, Indian,

AND OTHER ORIENTAL

CARPETS, RUGS,
MATTINGS, &c,

Of rare manufacture and in great variety, suitable
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